


The family we make

by Hufflepuff_Star



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Boggarts, Book 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Disowned Draco Malfoy, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Hufflepuff Draco Malfoy, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Lucius Malfoy's A+ Parenting, M/M, POV Draco Malfoy, Physical Abuse, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Verbal Abuse, Younger Draco Malfoy, Yule Ball (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:21:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 26,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26072584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hufflepuff_Star/pseuds/Hufflepuff_Star
Summary: Draco got sorted into Hufflepuff in his first year. His parents finding this out disown him and he is put in foster care bouncing from home to home. Despite all of this he becomes really good friends with the golden trio and all of them spend as much time as possible with them.Now he starting his third year and the triwizard tournament is going on. What could go wrong?
Relationships: Arthur Weasley/Molly Weasley, Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Lucius Malfoy/Narcissa Black Malfoy, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 82
Kudos: 267





	1. Saving Draco

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to read a fic about Draco’s boggart and him being a Hufflepuff and other stuff so I combined it and this is the idea that came to me the other day and I just had to start writing it. I will be updating and writing this along with the other fanfic that I am currently posting. If you want me to continue this please comment and let me know down below. Kudos and comments make me smile. So here is the story please enjoy.

Not to be dramatic, but Draco has had a hard life. Now most teens say that and they’re referring to their parents not letting them get drunk, or go to the latest weird sisters concert, or stay out till 3am. That was literally the last fight that Harry had told Draco he and his mother had gotten into. But Draco wasn’t blessed to have those sorts of issues. No, his were trying to deep clean his ‘home’ every day before his foster ‘mother’ got home and praying that she doesn’t notice anything out of place. Not that he’d ever tell his friends about that; they already worry about him too much. Ever since they became close in Draco's first year of Hogwarts they have been a tad bit over protective of him. 

Draco understood why… to a degree. During his first year when he became the first Malfoy in all of time to get sorted into a house other than Slytherin, and it was Hufflepuff no less.He likes his house now of course but that’s not the point right now. When his parents had found out about this it had not been the best to put it ONE way. To put it the other way, they had sent him a howler the very next day during their dinner feast loudly and publicly disowning him from the Malfoy line. It was all over the papers for weeks, everyone was talking about it. Slytherins would spit and hex at him in the halls, ravenclaws would stare and whisper about him behind their books, some of the Gryffindors would mock him as he walked through the halls. It was kind of awful to be completely honest, but despite it all his house had been there to defend him whenever they could, and that made Draco happy to be a Hufflepuff. (also they’re right next to the kitchen so score)

But his house couldn’t be there to protect him all the time. One day he had been running late to the Halloween feast, literally. As he sped through the hallways of the school he accidentally slammed into someone. That someone had been Theodore Knott, second year slytherin who had taken a certain interest in Draco. And by interest Draco means he likes to torment him at every turn. When Draco fell Knott immediately started mocking, yelling, and kicking Draco. He had tried to limit the pain by curling into a ball covering his face until the kicking stopped. But it stopped just as soon as it had started. After a few seconds of nothing happening he had moved his hands and looked up to see three people standing there. One girl with extremely bushy brown hair, one with unkempt ginger hair and one with curly black hair. 

The black hair one who he later found out was Harry Potter had helped him up and the other two were Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. They had made sure he was ok and then guided Draco to the main hall for dinner. They made him join them at their table despite that being against the rules of sitting with your own house. They’ve been inseparable ever since. But with that comes incredibly overprotective friends, which is nice… most of the time. 

So Draco would rather limit the stories of the rough treatment in his numerous foster houses. In the past two years since his disownment and being put in foster care where he only lives over the summer he has been in 9 houses. This may not sound like a lot, but it is. Though Draco might not have a choice of keeping it secret much longer. 

In the time that he has been daydreaming about the past few years he has not been cleaning up the kitchen and he is almost positive that he just heard Miss.Stevens come home through the floo. 

“Draco” Her icy voice calls from the family room as she heads towards the kitchen.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. 

“Draco”

He freezes as he now hears the eriy voice of his foster guardian speak from behind him. It sends a shiver down his spine that causes his heart to beat rapidly. He doesn’t dare move a muscle, feeling like she is the predator and he is the prey.

“Now Draco, I thought we had a deal. I provide you with a house, food to eat, a bed to sleep in and in return you make sure the house is picked up. I thought we understood each other?” 

Picked up? Draco thinks indignantly, by picked up she must mean so clean that you couldn’t even find fingerprints on the furniture if you tried. But he doesn’t dare vocalize this. He just nods his head timidly with his eyes cast to the ground. 

“Then why, if you don’t mind me asking of course, is the kitchen so filthy.” She spits out the last word as if it disgusts her to even say. Filthy? The kitchen is almost spotless minus the unmopped floor. 

“I’m sorry miss but I-” He tries to defend himself but is quickly cut off as her bony fingers wrap around his jaw cutting him off. 

“I did not ask for your excuses did I?” She asks him in no more than whisper but it’s even more terrifying than her voice a couple minutes ago. “Since you couldn’t complete a simple task I believe the only way for you to learn is to go to your room without any food until Thursday. Now go.” She shoves him towards the stairs that lead to his “room” in the attic.

“But miss” He tries to reason with her “It’s only mon-” but she backhands him so hard that he falls to the ground hard with the taste of copper in his mouth as it makes contact with the floor. She stands above him and crouches down so she is only an inch from his face. 

“Go upstairs now” She tells him and he doesn’t hesitate a second time as he scurries up the stairs.

* * *

Draco sat in the little corner of his room with a damp rag held up to his lip. He looked at the sliver of glass that he used as a mirror and saw that his eye was developing a dark bruise around it. Damn it, at least he still has a little bit of time so that he could hide it before he sees anyone else. But on that same note, he still has a little bit of time before he sees anyone. He pulls us the loose floorboard where he keeps his stash of emergency food and wiggles a granola bar out of it as he stares out the window taking in the night sky. 

He wonders what his life could be if it was normal. But what would he even qualify as normal? Being sorted into slytherin or just having parents who would accept him? Being more confident and standing up to people? If he was sorted into slytherin would he even be friends with the same people? Treat people the way he does now? Would his morals be different if he still lived with his par- Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy? Draco pondered on these questions as he looked over at Saiph, his owl, who was just staring at the granola in his hand.

“I know you’re hungry but I haven’t eaten at all today. No don’t give me that look” She just stares into Draco’s soul, unblinking. “Ugh fine.” He gets up from where he’s sitting and breaks off a good chunk of his dinner and drops it into her cage. She gives a happy hoot and jumps down from her perch to eat it. Draco smiles looking at her and strokes her head as she eats itr. He is content petting her lost in thought, that is until something catches his eyes from outside. 

He walks over to the window and squints looking out into the darkness. Maybe it was just a figment of his imagination because all that he can see is a star in the distance that is getting brighter and closer by the second. Wait a minute, that’s not a star. Is that a bloody car? Draco knows that wizards have the ability to make cars fly, it’s nothing out of the ordinary but he’s never actually seen one before so it throws him off a little bit. Before he knows it it is floating right outside his window. He looks at Saiph but she just nods his head as if to encourage him to see what’s up. So he unclasps the handle and spins it to open the window. Damn this house is old. He just stares at his reflection in the car window for a couple seconds until the window is rolled down and he see-

“Charlie?” Draco is completely shocked to see the grinning face of the second eldest Weasley child. He is usually in Romania working with dragons or something like that so Draco has only talked with him a few times. But he’s always been immensely kind to him when they’ve been together and treats him like another one of his countless brothers. 

“What’s up shorty?” He had taken to calling Draco that annoying nickname. When he first met Draco, Draco had been far too timid and shy to say anything to him. So due to their dramatic height difference (Draco at only 5 foot and Charlie at 6’2”) he had labeled Draco as shorty. 

“What are you doing here? Is everything ok at the burrow?” Draco questions slightly panicky.

“Everything is fine back at home, I think I should be asking you that though.” Charlie answers, gesturing at the black eye that has formed from the incident earlier today. Draco turns his head away embarrassed that he has been caught. 

“It’s not that big of a deal” Charlie gives him a look that Dracos knows means that they are talking about this later. “But why are you here?” 

“Well actually I’m-” But Charlie is cut off before he can even finish what he was saying.

“He’s not alone though!!!” Ron launches himself from where he was sitting in the back seat which causes the car to slightly rock. “Why didn’t you tell him I was in the car too? He likes me more than you anyway old man.” Draco has to stifle a laugh from escaping his mouth, god he missed his friend.

“Jesus christ Ron dont move like that while the car in the air you’re going to kill us.”

“What’s it going todo charles? Hit another flying car?” Ron responds with a deadpan expression until his eyes go huge in shock when he spots the black eye on Draco’s face. “OH MY GOD WHAT HAPPENED?????” He all but yelled. “Charlie, do you see this? I TOLD you something was going on DIDN’T I???”

“Yes Ronald you did but can you please shut the fuck up before you wake up everyone.” 

“Yeah Ron please keep it down I don’t want Miss to get anymore mad then she already is.” With that the two Weasley’s turn and give Draco a calculating look. 

“We are talking about all of this later young man.” Ron scolds him like he is his parent. Then, before Draco can respond Ron leaps from his car through Dracos window and into his room. “But first we need to grab your stuff and put it into the car- is this your room. Damn boy it’s sad.” Draco just kind of stands there as Ron walks around the room picking up Draco’s books, bags, etc and handing them to Charlie as he puts them in the car. 

“Ron!” Draco yells at him, which he never does, and it causes him to stop what he’s doing and look at Draco in surprise. “What is going on?” 

“I thought you were the smartest wizard in your class? That’s what Ginny told me anyway. We’re breaking you out of this place duh, do I have to say it again for you to get it.”

No he did not. The two of them sped around his tiny room grabbing anything of Draco’s and hurling it into the car. Suddenly Draco hears soft feet moving quickly towards his room and he looks at Ron panicked.

“Time to go” Ron says as he grabs Saiph’s cage and heads towards the car. He hands her to Charlie and climbs in after her. “Come on Draco” He beckons Draco to follow him right as Miss.Stevens opens the door to see a floating car and Draco heading towards it to escape. Shit. Once the two of them make eye contact he ignores all rational as he sprints and dives through the house window into the car. Charlie puts it in drive and speeds away mumbling under his breath as the other two crack up next to him,

* * *

After Draco and Ron and stopped laughing they had climbed into the back seat and Draco leaned on him as he slowly drifted into some much needed sleep. Sleep which lasted no more than 20 minutes because he felt a quite impactful bump as the car make contact with the ground. Draco sits up looking disheveled as his normally perfect hair is pointing in every direction. As he lifts his head off of Ron’s lap his eyes search around trying to make sense of what is going on but all he sees is the two gingers yelling at each other. 

“I thought you said you knew how to drive? You’re 21 how can you suck this much”

“I know how to drive but it’s like 5am and pretty dark outside what do you want me to do?”

“It just sounds like you’re making excuses for the fact that you’re a failure.” Ron mumbled under his breath as he leaned back into his seat. He said it softly but not softly enough to not be heard by Charlie.

“I do not care if it would get me in more trouble with mom then we are inevitably already in, I will physically kick you out of this car so that you feel it for the next week no matter how many potions you take or spells you use.” 

“Whatever” Ron rolls his eyes but then shifts his attention to Draco once he realizes that he is awake. “Oh you’re awake, sorry we woke you up. But I think we’re here.” Right as he’s done talking the car comes to a stop and the doors open encouraging them to get out of the car and they listen. Draco then takes a good look and sees Ron’s house for the first time. 

Draco has always regarded the Weasley’s with much respect. Whenever he’s seen them, either at Hogwarts or Harry’s house, they have been nothing but kind and caring despite the fact that he used to be a malfoy. And he tries to reciprocate that as much as wizardly possible. That being said… Draco is worried that their house will collapse on him when he enters. It umm, it ain’t on...right. It’s the leaning tower of pizza (that’s this muggle tower thing that was made long ago, Hermione told him about it) but a house. In short it looked like this cute little cottage with multiple rooms stacked ontop of it with none of them lining up. But hey, it was the Weasley’s and not a foster home so it could have been a shoe box for all he cared. 

“What do you think?” Ron asks Draco and though he is trying to make it seem nonchalant, Draco has known him long enough to be able to tell that he is waiting eagerly for his answer. 

“I like it, seems very homey.” Draco says.

“Amazing, now can you two come help with the bags?” Charlie calls to them as he opens the back seat pulling Dracos things out of the car. 

As they unpack the car and make sure that everything that Draco and Ron flug into the car from his “room” is accounted for Draco catches a reflection of himself. Oof. Shoulders down he looks fine. However, shoulders up is a different story. He has a busted lip from when he fell and a black eye that took up a decent amount of his face,

“Charlie can you do me a favor?” He asks the older man looking up at him.

“Yeah buddy what’s up?” See, that’s why Draco likes Charlie. He doesn’t bring up that he has helped Draco out enough today. That he rescued him from his (probably former) foster guardian. Or that he is probably going to be grounded for the next year or so for leaving without telling him mom anything. He may be 21, almost 22 but you never stop answering to Mrs.Weasley. He doesn’t bring up the fact that Ron has been driving him insane for the past hour or so and that’s due to Draco. He just hears Draco ask for help and he wants to help in any way he can. 

“Can you glamor my face for me?” He tries to throw in an overdramatic smile to win him over but Charlie's eyes just turn into slits as he looks suspiciously at Draco. 

“And why would you want me to do that?”

“Because as much as I love and appreciate everything your mother does, and I do she’s the best, I don’t want her to interrogate me about what happened.” Draco rushes out.

“Ok, that’s understandable. I will glamor your face, temporarily, on one condition.”

“You name it just say the word and-”

“You tell me what happened that made you get that”

“Say another word big C” 

“Fine. You don’t have to say anything to me. But talk to Ron. Or Harry, or Hermione, or Lupin, or Ginny, or Sirius. Honestly Sirius might be the best. But talk with someone about it.” He crouches in front of Draco forcing him to look at him instead of his shoes. “I know that you and I have only talked a handful of times, but I know what I saw and I want to make sure you’re ok.” 

Draco nods his head and Charlie mumbles the spell and a glamor is placed so he looks as if nothing is wrong. But it doesn’t cover up the pain, but he can muscle through that. Draco knows that Charlie has the right intentions but Draco also knows that he is in fact not going to burden anyone else with how he got his bruise. And he thinks Charlie knows that too. 

“Now lets see if we can sneak it so mom doesn’t kill me and Ron instantly.” 

“I wouldn’t be sure of that.” They hear a voice say from behind them. They turn around to see Bill leaning the the door frame with his arms crossed and his knowing smirk on. “Where have you two been? Ron, understandable he is still a child and will do stupid shit. You on the other hand are a grown ass adult so you have no excuse for acting with no regard for the consequences. Not that I should be surprised given your history.” 

“Is she that mad?” Charlie asks as they approach the entrance.

“She has been tearing apart the house worried sick. I’d be surprised if she doesn’t kill you, we’d help her you know. Hi Draco how are you?” 

“I’m doing good thanks.” 

“Great, love to hear it.” The four of them head into the house and it looks exactly how Draco would expect it to. Very cozy, with most of the things looking like they had been made by Mrs.Weasley herself. It had a red/orange color scheme. Bloody Gryffindors. But despite that it is very cute and Draco likes it. 

“WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN??” Mrs.Weasley rushes down the stairs in all her glory, fuming. Her face almost as red as her hair. Though Draco loves her, she is one of the sweetest and most caring women he has ever met, he is terrified of her right. So he hides behind Charlie to avoid her wrath. “Well?” She asks them dangerously calm, a complete shift from her booming voice just a moment ago.

“Well mom you see we-”

“No note! Rooms empty! I had no idea- you could have died- do you like making me feel- I will chain you to your beds until YOU leave for Hogwarts and YOU get a real job if you EVER do anything like this again do you understand?” The three of them do not say one word.It seems like she would never run out of steam with the rate at which she was digging into them. Charlie ran his hand down his face and turned away revealing Draco to Mrs.Weasley. 

“Oh Draco honey it is so nice to see you. Come to the kitchen and I’ll whip up some breakfast for you. Every time I see you, you're skinner and skinner, we need to get some meat on your bones. I do hope I didn’t scare you too much with my yelling earlier, I don’t blame you one bit my dear. Just those boys left without a word and I was so worried. Now sit there, rest and what would you like: french toast or pancakes? And I won’t take no for an answer.” 

“Pancakes would be fine with me Mrs.Weasley.” 

“Pancakes it is then, and please dear call me Molly.” 

Draco and Ron sit down at the kitchen table waiting for their breakfast. Charlie had brought up his bags and mumbled that he’s exhausted and is going back to sleep. Draco leans his head on rons shoulder when the adrenaline from the craziness that this night has brought starts to leave him and the exhaustion sets back in. 

“Hey buddy, you sleepy?” Draco hears Ron condescendingly ask him as he gently ruffles his hair. Draco would typically smack him or give a sarcastic quip back in retaliation but he is far too exhausted to move right now to do anything but grunt in agreement. 

“Here is your food boys. Draco I expect to see your plate cleared. Ron if you think that you are free of any repercussions after your stunt, you are sadly mistaken young man.”

“Mommmmmm” Ron grumbles with a mouth full of pancakes.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full young man I taught you better then that, and don’t you mom me you brought this on yourself. Draco dear when you're done you can head to Ron's room to rest for a bit. I can see you’re exhausted. Ron on the other hand, you are going to be scrubbing down this floor until it looks spotless. Am I understood?” 

“But mom what about Charlie?”

“Charlie is an adult who will get his own tongue lashing from me for taking you out of my house without my permission later. You are going to be cleaning until we leave for Diagon Alley. Am I understood?”

“Yes.”

“Great, now take Draco to your room before he falls asleep at the table.” Molly ushers them away from the table and upstairs.

Ron’s room is in the very top room of the house on the 20th floor or something like that. They have to climb up a ladder to reach it because Ron’s room is also in the attic. Once they get into it Draco looks around and takes it in. It’s one of the smallest rooms he’s ever been in. There’s a bed, dresser, and nightstand almost all of them touching each other. It has a small ledge right next to the window where maybe two people could sit. In the center of the room dangles a candle that can be lit so that there is some light in the room.

“I know it’s small and probably not the lavish style that you’re used to-”

“It’s perfect. Your house that is. It’s small, unique, loving, cozy and perfect. Don’t let any ignorant people tell you differently.” Draco thinks that he might have seen a smile grace Ron’s face with his last comment but he isn’t quite sure because he flops onto his bed falling asleep almost instantly.

  
  



	2. Diagon Alley

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Draco has dinner with everyone and catches up with Harry. The next day they go shopping in Diagon Alley, it doesn't go as smoothly as one would like.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey ya'll I hope you guys are doing good. Here is the second chapter for The Family we Make. Just so ya'll know I will be getting my wisdom teeth removed this weekend this weekend so I won't be by my laptop for a couple days but my goal is to post again by my birthday the 17th. There is a lot of dialogue this chapter which I hope you like. Also James is a great dad and friend, this isn’t a James hate fic (if those even exist) he just doesn’t trust Draco for reasons we’ll explore later, I love James Potter, don't think I don't❤️. My friend and I have both reread the chapter to spell check and all that but if I missed anything please let me know. Kudos and comments fuel my want to write and constructive criticism is appreciated. ENJOY!

Draco has not had a good night's sleep since 1909. Well... that’s actually a lie since he was born in 1980. Let’s just say that it’s been a hot minute since Draco has had a good night's rest. So, when he fell asleep in Rons bed God knew how long he was asleep. But it must have been pretty long because as Draco looks out the window he can tell that it’s once again dark outside. No matter how much he would like to sleep for a few more hours though his stomach starts growling like crazy demanding for food that it was deprived of back “home”. He rubs his eyes trying to get them to focus and he notices a shadow standing at the foot of the bed.

“Jesus Christ” He swears (Draco’s version of a swear because he doesn’t actually cuss that’s just too improper for him) as he tumbles out of bed. 

“Well that’s quite some colorful vocabulary for you, isn’t it?”

“GINNY!” He yells, he would recognize that voice anywhere. He scrambles off of the ground and jumps onto her giving her a big hug. “I missed you so much” he says slightly muffled into her shoulder. After a few seconds she pulls away, smiles down at him and ruffles his hair. Something he has noticed from the past couple years is 1) everyone is taller than him which is a blessing and a curse it depends on the situation and 2)everyone likes ruffling and messing up his hair. 

“I’ve missed you too buddy, sending letters isn’t enough of you for me.” She says with a pure smile. “When I found out that Charlie and Ron brought you home I was mad at first that they didn’t ask me to come rescue you. But I shook it off and I went to find you but mom told me that you had gone to take a nap so I waited for you to wake up... For 12 hours.” Oh so that’s how long he was sleeping. 

“I was tired Gin, please don’t be mad at me.” He looked up at her with his big doe eyes that got her to do anything that he wanted. She just laughed and rolled her eyes at him. 

“Yeah, yeah. You know I can never be mad at you. Come on everyones waiting downstairs for you to have dinner.” With that the two of them head to the kitchen and talk casually as they go.

“So who is everyone?” Draco asks

“Oh you know you, me, my parents obviously, all my brothers minus Charlie, he had to go do something but you saw him yesterday and he’ll be home before we leave for the quidditch cup.” Is that this year? God that’s all Ron and Harry are going to be talking about, probably all the Weasley children besides Percy to be honest. “Sirius, Remus, Hermione, Harry's parents and of course Harry.” She finishes giving him a knowing smirk. It’s a secret to everyone but her and Hermione that he has had a crush on Harry since he saved him from Nott his first year. 

“Oh so Harry’s parents are here too?” Draco really likes Harry’s mom, Professor Evans. She’s really chill and nice. She teaches potions which is Draco’s favorite class so she has that going for her. But probably most important when she met Draco after everything had happened with Lucius she had really been there in every way she could for him. She will always have a special place in his heart and is someone that he looks up to. Everyone was nice during that time but she was different and Draco latched onto that differentness*. Harry’s father on the other hand… well he makes Draco call him Auror Potter for starters. Draco doesn’t know why, he doesn’t make anyone else call him that. He just doesn’t like Draco and Draco can’t find out for the life of him why. Well, he might have an idea but everytime he brings up his theory Harry tells him he’s being ridiculous. Despite that though, no matter what Harry or Professor Evans says, Draco knows that Aurror Potter just doesn’t like him. 

“Yeah and more importantly Harry.” Ginny whispers and winks at him as they enter the kitchen. Everyone is sitting at the table just starting dinner. Draco is slightly happy about that because he worries that if they weren’t their attention would all be on him and hates that. Call it his anxiety. 

“Draco!” Harry yells as he gets up from the table and runs over to greet him with a giant hug. “I haven’t seen you in forever.” Or the room attention wasn’t on him a second ago

“I missed you too Har.” Draco blushes lightly and follows him to sit down waving a timid high to everyone he passes. He sits between Harry and Sirius… and across from Auror Potter. 

“So we haven’t heard from you that much this summer how’ve you been kiddo?” Sirius asks him.

“Oh you know, same old, same old.” Draco answers as he starts to shovel food onto his plate. He always wants to avoid giving anything specific answers regarding his foster home so the adults don’t question him TO much. But that’s always hard to do with Sirius and Harry who know him almost too well. Well Harry does, Sirius can just tell he’s lying no matter what.

“But we don’t know why we are asking.” Harry remarks gently to him. “Isn’t your foster mom's name Kate or Kim or something like that? I thought you guys were living in  Camden London but Ron said they got you from some fancy house in Blackheath. ”

“Oh that was a while ago that I lived in Camden the end of last year to be precise. When I got off the train I was greeted by my case worker if you remember, they took me to Miss.Stevens who I’ve been with since then but I think that’s going to change after the incident.” Draco tries to explain nonchalantly.

“Wait, you changed houses again? What number is that?” Harry asks him, concern lacing his voice. 

“The 9th one.” Draco says as he stabs a piece of ham and puts it in his mouth. God, he missed good food.

“9? Draco that’s not good kiddo. Why didn’t you tell anyone in your letters, you know that any of us would drop anything to go and help you. Right?” Sirius puts a certain emphasis on that last word looking at Harry, Lupin (who is sitting next to him), and Auror Potter. The first two nod and agree with Sirius but the latter just takes a sip of his wine, eyes down avoiding Harry and Sirius’s glare.

“It is what it is” Draco responds, shrugging down at his food as he continues eating, wanting the subject to change.

“Well we’re glad that you’re here now.” Harry reassures him with a soft smile, that smile will always make Draco feel better no matter the circumstance. 

“What have you been up to, Har?” Draco asks knowing that this will get Harry to do his favorite thing, talk. 

“Oh my god it’s been crazy. So my parents and I went…” Draco listened to him ramble as he munched on his plate full of food. Whenever Harry talked he got this little glint in his eyes as he got enthralled in whatever he was talking about and it was memorizing. He must be getting that ‘dreamy’ look as Ginny puts it because he sees Remus lean over and give him a knowing smirk from over his glass. Dang, another person to add to the list of people that know about his crush. Honestly more people probably know then Draco thinks. He blushes deeply and looks very intently down at his food to avoid being caught by Remus, or worse, Auror Potter, again. He is enthralled and focused on his potatoes until Harry nudges him causing him to be drawn out of food world, a wonderful place. 

“Huh, what?” He asks, surprised. Harry rolls his eyes and snickers along with Sirius and Remus. 

“My mom was asking what you did for your birthday.” Harry tells him. Draco looks across from him and sees Professor Evans sitting next to Auror Potter smiling at him. 

“Sorry Professor I guess I just got lost in the world of food and Harry’s ramblings.” 

“Oh honey if I’ve told you once I’ve told you a thousand times you can just call me Lily when we aren’t in school. You can call those two Sirius and Lupin, you can call me Lily hun. ” She tells him with a sweet smile giving a not so subtle glare to Auror Potter when he grunts his disdain at that.

“And HEY! I wasn't rambling, I was informing you as to what I’ve been up to.” Harry defends himself.

Draco rolls his eyes and nudges Harry. “Yes you do and we love that about you and I did listen to everything you said sounds like you were quite busy this summer. But I didn’t do anything for my birthday this year Pro- Lily.” 

“Nothing? No cake? No gifts? No celebration of any kind?” Lily asks with a pitying voice. Dang it, he hates it when people pity him. 

“No” He just shakes his head.

“But-” She starts but stops when she makes eye contact with Remus. Draco doesn’t know why or what he had done/said to her to get her to stop, but Draco appreciates it. “Well it’s no biggie I guess that we’ll just have to do something to celebrate before you go back to school.”

“No, it’s really not that big-”

“Drake, buddy. You know my mom; once she has her heart on something there is nothing that you can say or do to change her mind. Just ask my dad.”

Draco would very much like to not say anything to his dad thank you. The 6 of them, minus Auror Potter, settle into casual catter about their summers and what they are looking forward to this year as they eat dinner. 

“Come on” Harry says once their plates are cleared and they’re just sitting there chatting idly. He gets up from the table and grabs Draco's hand “I want to show you something outside.” 

He gets up to follow him but they both stop at Auror Potters voice. “Where are you going Harry?”

“Outside dad” Harry responds with the arrogance of any teenager who is annoyed at their parents for whatever reason. 

“Yes but where outside? It’s already quite late outside.” 

“Yeah so? We’ll only be outside for a few minutes and then we’ll head up to Ron’s room. What’s the real issue dad? You didn’t have an issue when I went out with Ron at 1am the other day.” The two Potters stare at each other as if in a game of whits to see who will break first. Ultimately it is his dad.

“Just don’t be outside too late. People will go to bed soon and-”

“Only you Prongs, it’s not even 9pm yet.” Sirius cuts off winking at Draco.

“-And we have a busy day tomorrow.” Auror Potter finishes leveling a glare at Sirius who rolls his eyes and mumbles something under his breath. Draco just manages to catch the word prejudice. With that Harry grabs Draco’s hand again and pulls him towards the door. Right before they step outside he hears Lily scold her husband.

“Serves you right, you know your opinion on that boy has nothing to do with-” But Draco doesn’t catch the rest because he’s being pulled by a wild Harry.

* * *

“So what was it you wanted to show me?” Draco asks Harry as he follows him into the corn trail that the Weasley's apparently have. Dope. 

“Oh nothing really, I just wanted to help you escape the interrogation that my dad was destined to force onto you as to why you’re wearing glamour.” Harry has this habit? Talent? Whatever you call it, he does this thing where he talks about really serious and important things as if he’s casually talking about the latest quidditch game. And sometimes Draco finds it funny, but not when it is used on him.

“What are you talking about?” Draco asks, pulling out an ear of corn and fiddles with it as he tries to avoid eye contact. 

“Drake I am the son of the head Auror I can spot a glamour a mile away. Hey come on.” He stops walking and stands in front of Draco. “Look at me, come on.”

“It’s not that big of a deal, really. Can’t you just let it go?” Draco looks up at him with pleading eyes but is met with a hard look. No, he isn’t going to let it go. 

“Come on Draco, you know that you can tell me anything. What’s up?” Harry sits down in the middle of the dirt path where they were just walking down. Draco rolls his eyes and sits down next to him pulling his knees to his chest. 

“You gotta promise not to freak out.” Draco says really quietly. He looks over at Harry’s face and sees a look of hesitation. “I’m serious Harry. I’m not saying anything if you A) Don’t promise me you won’t freak out and B) Promise not to tell anyone.” 

“Ok, ok. I won’t react or tell anyone and I’ll make up something for my dad to believe so he won’t question you. Now why do you have glamour on your face.”As an answer Draco took out his wand and quietly cast a spell to take off his glamour. He heard Harry's quick intake of breath but thankfully he didn’t say anything. 

“It’s really not that big of a deal. I hadn't finished cleaning when Miss came home and was mad about it so she sent me to bed without dinner. I back talked and she shut me up real quick. If I had just done what she asked none of this would have happened.” He squeezes his knees tightly to his body waiting for Harry to talk but he doesn’t say anything so they just sit there. In the dark of night next to each other both thinking about what has just been said. Suddenly Dracos touches his face and sees that he's wet from him crying. Crying because he’s tired of going to a different foster home every few weeks and having each one be worse than the last and this is the first time he’s talked about it and-.... And he’s just tired. He feels a pair of arms wrap around him to give him a hug and after a few minutes he stops crying. He looks up and sees that Harry is hugging him tightly as if he is going to vanish if he lets go.

“It’s not your fault.” He whispers to him. “I don’t care what any of them have told you in the past, they shouldn’t treat you like that. You’re a great kid who anyone should be lucky to have as a part of their life. I know your past foster homes haven't been the best, you’re one of my best friends Draco I can tell when something is off. But we’ll figure something out for the future I promise. And no matter what you got me, don’t you dare ever forget that.”

“Ok” Draco whispers back because there’s nothing else to say and they sit there looking up at the starry sky together.

* * *

After the heartfelt moment between the two of them, they had composed themselves with the agreement that what is spoken in the corn field, stays in the corn field. They head back to the house with Harry lecturing him about the best quidditch teams and Draco laughing and him.

“... Can you believe that? He thought that the Harpes had a chance at the cup! Idiot, and I told him that. But I then got in trouble for calling my dad's boss an idiot. It was worth it though to see his shocked face.” Harry smiled gleefully at him

“One of these days your lack of preservation skills are going to get you in trouble” Draco scold him

“Some would argue that I already have” Harry responds with a cheeky grin

“Worse trouble Harry”

“Worse trouble then you’re going to be for not saying hi to Hermione yet?”

Oh shoot. 

“Noooooo” Draco looks at Harry with an expression of complete horror.

“Yep, you walked right past her when you came into the kitchen for dinner. She is going to fillet you boy.” 

“Oh my god we need to go find her now. Where is she?”

“Probably hanging with Ron planning your demise in his room.” Harry answers taking far to much enjoyment in his torture right now.

“Come on let's go then” And the two of them run to the house and then up to Ron's room. Once they get there Draco pokes his head in to see the two of them lazily hanging out on Ron’s floor talking. 

“Hey Hermione” He cautiously calls as he comes into the room trying to gauge her expression.

“Draco” Her voice is pure ice and the snickering from Ron and Harry does not help the situation.

“I’m sorry I forgot to say hi earlier I just got dis-” He’s suddenly yanked down next to her as she hugs him. 

“I missed you so much. You didn’t write to be nearly as much as you should have. It’s a crime really. Where have you been? How are you? My god you are far too small and skinny we need to get you to eat more did you...” She rambles on and on, any anger she had towards him nonexistent now.

“Hey, how come if Harry or me had done that you would have castrated us?” Rons asks accusingly 

“Because you two are you two and Draco is a sweetheart.” She responds easily as Draco sticks his tongue out at him. 

“What were the two of you talking about before me and Draco came in?” Harry asks as he sits down next to Draco.

“Oh just how we are excited for this year. The quidditch world cup in a couple days and then the Goblet of Fire this year and the Yule ball. It’s quite exciting.” Hermione says. 

“I didn’t realize that was all this year. Are we going to the world cup?” Draco asks as he lays down with his head in Hermione's lap as she strokes his hair with her well manicured hand. 

“Of course. The plan is…” Draco hears her talk and the other two make fun of her as he falls asleep thinking of how lucky he is to be back with his friends.

* * *

“DRACO WAKE UP!!”

That is how Draco is awoken the next day. He is screamed out of his blissful sleep at too early o’clock. If you haven’t picked up on it yet Draco LOVES his sleep, when he can get it anyway. Cedric has difficulty waking him up for classes somedays. Cedric is his best friend in Hufflepuff and like his brother in more ways than one. He is now in his final year of Hogwarts and that honestly makes Draco upset to think about, even though he knows that he can still visit and see him it won’t be the same as literally rooming with him**. However we should get back to the matter at hand.

He shoots up from where he was sleeping with his wand in hand, his eyes trying to rapidly adjust to being awake. 

“That’s not very Hufflepuff like is it Fred? Pointing his wand at us.  _ Tsk tsk _ ”

“No not one bit George. I think he may have been sorted into the wrong house.”

It was too early for them.

“What are you two doing here?” Draco groaned, still exhausted.

“Well we care about you-”

“I’m beginning to doubt that right now” Draco grumbles

“Did you hear that George? How rude.”

“Quite rude.”

“I don’t think we should tell him what we were going to should we?”

“I’m beginning to rethink that.” George says as Draco takes a deep breath.

“I’m sorry guys I’m tired you guys just woke me up, rather abruptly. What’s up?” He asks as he closes trying to get his bearings together. 

“Oh, we thought you’d want to know that we’re leaving for Diagon alley at 11:30-” Fred starts.

“-And it’s 11:25” George finishes. 

Sweet marmalade. Draco tumbles up, the sheets getting tangled between his legs which causes him to fall on his face with a solid thud. 

“Why didn’t anyone wake me?” He asks shoving on the first pair of pants that he can get his hands on.

“Mum told us to wake you up by 10, but we just forgot.” Fred answers as the twins leave the room together. Draco really did miss those two over the summer but right now all he wants to hex them. He looks at himself in the mirror and notices that though his bruise is healing it’s still there so he throws on a messy glamour on it and sprints down the stairs. When he reaches the family room he sees Sirius, Harry and Lupin all sitting together talking on the couch.

“Hey.” Draco calls to them. 

“Morning sleeping beauty, we were wondering when you were gonna get up.” Harry teases him, standing up and heading over to where Draco is.

“Hey um yeah what’s uh… Good morning?” Draco manages to stutter out.

“Good morning.” Harry answers his voice husky as he stops in front of Draco with that stupid smirk on his face.

“Yeah sorry about that I-” Draco cuts himself off as Harry runs his hand through his hair in an attempt to calm the mess that Draco hasn’t had time to fix. Draco looks up at him lost in his gorgeous eyes as Harry looks down at him with an oblivious, caring expression.

“You what?” Harry asks innocently

Feeling called out Draco’s face turns the shade of a tomato. “I was just really tired and needed to catch up on sleep. Where is everyone?” He rushes out as he speed walks over to where Lupin and Sirius are avoiding their knowing gaze. Let’s add Sirius to the list of people who know Draco's crush.

“Everyone already left, we stayed behind to wait for you to be ready kiddo.” Sirius says with a playful tone.

“Cool cool coooooool. Well I’m here now so lets skeet.” He hates every word that just left his mouth. Harry rolls his eyes at him chuckling.

“Alright, go after me. We are just getting our supplies for school, nothing out of the ordinary.” Harry says right before he uses the floo and goes up in flames. Draco enters right behind him and grabs a handful of powder. But, despite the reassuring looks from Lupin and Sirius as he throws it down, he can’t shake this feeling as if something bad is going to happen today. 

* * *

Draco stumbles out of the fireplace and falls onto someone. There has never been a time where he has used a portkey, floo or side along apparated*** with someone and he didn’t feel like crap afterwards. Being a wizard is amazing, but traveling magically sucks. Luckily it was only Harry who he stumbled into.

“Can you ever travel and not fall over” Harry asks him in a teasing tone.

“I don’t always fall when I travel” He responds slightly defensive

“I’ve never seen you gracefully exit a floo or what not” Sirius comments as he saunters next to Harry with Lupin following close behind him. Draco rolls his eyes and the four of them head into the main street of Diagon Alley. It’s not as busy as Draco expected it to be considering that it’s only a couple weeks until classes resume but the lack of people is a blessing in his eyes.

“So you two are good right? Get the stuff that you need for classes and be back at the house for dinner, no later than 10 or Molly and Lily will have ALL of our heads.” Lupin tells them as the two adults head off to commence their own shopping for the day.

“We’re on our own?” Draco asks Harry

“Yeah pretty much. Everyone is split into their own group doing their shopping, but we’re meeting Ron and Hermione at the three broomsticks once we are done before we head back to the house.” Harry tells him. 

“Oh ok” Draco feels his heart speed up at the prospect of being with Harry, just the two of them, for the next few hours. He tries to keep it unnoticeable though because not only does Harry, and everyone but Ginny, Hermione, Sirius, Lupin, not know that he has a crush on Harry. But Harry isn’t gay and no one else knows that Draco is gay. Well, Hermione, Ginny, Sirius and Lupin probably do because they know his crush, but no one else. He is already the too small, disowned, Hufflepuff. Adding gay to that would just be the cherry on top of the cake for him. 

“Can we head to Gringotts so I can get some money.” Despite the fact that he had been disowned he did have some money. The day after he got disowned he got called into his charms teachers office, who was/is Sirius. He told Draco that he had been in the exact same situation himself when he was Draco's age and he wanted to help him. And by that he meant he wanted to withdraw as much money as humanly possible from the Malfoy account and put it in an account that could only be accessed by Draco. Though at the time Draco was hesitant to trust anyone he had listened and thank god he did or else he’d have nothing now. 

“Yeah of course no problem.” Harry tells him and the two of them head over chatting idly. They get to the bank and everything goes smoothly. He gives them his wand, they are weird and freak as goblins are, he grabs his gallions, and speed walks out of there. Everytime he goes there he gets freaked out. That's why he can only ever go if one of his friends is with him. Harry is ranting and raving about the world cup, again, and how excited he is as. They leave the bank and turn down a street towards Flourish and Bolts. Suddenly Draco is taken a back as someone grabs him by the shoulder and slams him into the wall of a store. His vision blurs as his head hits the wall for a couple of seconds but he doesn’t need to see the person to know who it is. He recognizes that grip and what Harry says next just confirms his suspicions. 

“Lucius”

Yep, he knew something was going to go wrong today, just his luck. Standing in front of him was Lucius Malfoy, someone he hasn’t seen in years, someone who Draco used to call father, who at one point cared about what happened to him. He had not seen him since he told Draco he was no longer a part of the Malfoy line and to get off his property before he calls the authorities for trespassing. There are a thousand questions going through his head right now. Why? Why is he here? What is he supposed to say? How could he abandon Draco as if it meant nothing? But none of these things leave his mouth. 

“Do you have anything to say boy?” Lucius spits out at Draco with hate that cannot be faked. Draco is frozen with such fear that he doesn’t even know if he can move let alone talk. Luckily Harry does not have that issue.

“Get off of him you piece of shit.” Harry snarls at Lucius shoving him off of Draco. Lucius takes his hands off of Draco but is still looking at him like he is absolutely disgusted by his presence. He’s the one who grabbed Draco, he could have kept walking if he didn’t want to deal with Draco.

“What do you want, Lucius?” Harry asks on Draco’s behalf. “He’s not your son anymore, you have no right to to touch him.” Though Draco knows what Harry says is true and he is trying to help him, it still hurts. 

“Did you lose the ability to talk? I thought you couldn’t get any more pathetic, I’ve been proven wrong apparently.” He raises his cane so quickly that Draco doesn’t see it, but he can feel it pressing against his Adam's apple. “Speak.”

“Y-y-y-yes sir.” Draco manages to get out, his voice shaking. 

“Good.” Lucius says with a slimy smile, Harry just stands there with his hands clenched in fists by his sides trying to figure out what he should do next. “Now, where is my money?”

Crap.

“M-m-m-money?” Draco stutters out.

“Yes, possibly the money which you just took a portion out of Gringotts mere minutes ago.” Lucius says now eerily calm but the cane, and look of disgust, are still in place. 

“I d-d-don’t have any o-o-o-of your money.” 

“Stop stuttering you insolent fool.” Lucius’s furry now revamped. “The money that you took out of the Malfoy vault before you were officially cut off from the Malfoy line.”

Oh that money.

“We don’t have any of your money you psychopath. Let's go Draco.” Harry doesn’t give him a chance to respond. He knocks the cane down from Draco's neck, grabs his hand and pulls him away from Lucius. Or he tries to. Lucius grabs Draco by the scruff of his neck and whispers threateningly in his ear. 

“You think that you can best me boy? You’ll be dead by the end of this year I’ll make sure of that. You, Potter, and anyone else you love. You think they care about you? Just you wait. You’re unlovable, don’t forget it. You can’t escape it. Mark my words. You will get what you deserve and you will hate every minute of it.” Draco looks up at him with wide terrified eyes, paralyzed with fear. He doesn’t know what spell Harry said but he hears some sort of spell hit Lucius, or almost he’s not quite sure to be frank, which causes him to push Draco away. Harry grabs Draco’s hand and doesn’t give Lucius a chance and they sprint down that alley away from him.

* * *

Harry tries to get Draco to talk while they shop, but nothing works. He asks him about what he’s looking forward to in classes, the triwizard tournament, the world cup, he even asks him about potions, but nothing works. He eventually gives up and talks at Draco getting the hint, he wants to be left alone with his thoughts. Despite the fact that Harry stopped trying to get Draco to talk, he didn’t stop trying to cheer him up. He bought him a bag of his favorite candy at Honeydukes (glacial snow flakes), a new advanced potions book, and new quidditch gloves. Though this didn’t get Draco to forget what happened earlier in the day it did get him to smile and start talking as they headed towards the three broomsticks to meet Ron and Hermione. 

“... and some Porcupine quills, according to the book anyway, and you have it. Isn’t that amazing?” Draco rambles to Harry as he looks down in his book. It is probably quite a sight to see: Draco's eyes completely glued to his book and Harry trying to guide him to the pub so he doesn't run into anyone, or anything. Draco does like talking to Harry about his interests, even if he doesn’t find them interesting he listens and pays attention to Draco because he knows that it’s important to him. 

“ Yes it does, I mean I don’t understand a word you’re saying but it sounds pretty cool. When we make it I’ll make sure to come to you for your help.” Harry says to Draco with a smile.

“Why would you come to me? Your mother is literally the ****advanced potions professor. I’m just average at potions anyway.” Draco says, still looking at his book. 

“No, my mom may be one of the potions professors but she’s also my mother. If you know what I mean.” Harry says before he thinks. Realization hits him and he winces at himself in embarrassment. No Draco doesn’t know what mothers are like because the one he did renounced that title. 

“Hey I’m sorry Drake I didn’t mean it like that. That was stupid of me, you know sometimes I say things without thinking.” Harry apologizes.

“It’s fine don’t worry about it.” Draco reassures him.

“Hey what did yo- Lucius say to you?”

“Nothing.” Draco says in a tone that leaves no room for argument, but that doesn’t stop Harry. 

“Draco”

“Harry”

“Come on you can tell me.” He tries to persuade him.

“I know I can, I just don’t want to. Come one, they’re waiting for us.” Draco walks ahead of Harry into the Three Broomsticks knowing he only delayed the inevitable. He spots Ron and Hermione in the booth in the far corner. A genuine smile spreads across his face as he heads over. 

“Draco” Hermione calls and waves him over. “We got here early, which is good considering how many people have come since we came in. Where’s Harry?”

“Behind me, he should get here any minute. How was your guy's day?” Draco asks as he grasps one of the four butterbeers on the table, he hasn’t had one since their last Hogsmede trip last year and he misses it. He looks at the two of them and sees Hermione slightly glaring at Ron and Ron looking anywhere but at her.

“Do you want to tell him or should I?” She asks Ron annoyance laced in her words.

“I don’t think we need to tell them at all.” Ron meeting Hermione's look.

“Tell us what?” Harry asks as he sits down next to Ron.

“Nice to see you Harry. Tell you that Ron got in a fight in the middle of Flourish and Bolt so we were kicked out and couldn’t get any of our books.” 

“It wasn’t my fault!!!” 

“Really then who was the one to punch Nott in the face?”

“You did what?” Draco asks, shocked.

“Nice!” Harry gives Ron a high five both of them grinning like idiots.

“No, don’t encourage him. He was goading you and you fell for it. Was it worth it?”

“Yes! He’s always picking on-” Draco does not miss the way Ron's eyes dart to him for a second. “-people smaller than him so I decided to give him a taste of his own medicine.” Hermione just shakes her head at him and takes a sip of her butterbeer. 

“I still don’t think violence is the answer…”

“Didn’t you punch him in the face last year?” Draco comments with a smirk on his face. 

“Fair point.” They all laugh at that, the tensions between Hermione and Ron dissipate. 

“How are you guys going to get your books though?” Draco asks.

“Oh we saw Lupin and Sirius and told them what happened. Sirius high fived Ron but Lupin told us he’d get our books for us and wouldn’t tell Molly, for Ron’s sake.” Ron nods rapidly at that and Draco chuckles. If Ron does one more thing to piss Molly off before they return to Hogwarts, there might not be a Ron to return to Hogwarts.

“Are you guys excited about the Triwizard tournament?” 

“Yeah, when was the last time it happened Mione?” Harry asks.

“1772 they stopped having it because it was too dangerous but apparently there are new rules and regulations.” Hermione informs them.

“Dang” All the guys say together.

“Are any of you planning to put your name in?” Draco asks them knowing the answer but just wanting to confirm it. They all shake their head, which Draco is very thankful for. He doesn’t know what he’d do if one of them put their name in AND got selected. He’d spend the whole year worrying about them making it out alive. “Good”

“What about you Draco? You don’t want the fame and fortune of it all?” Ron sarcastically remarks winking at him. 

“Oh god no, I get stressed when all of my friends' attention is on me let alone all of the attention a triwizard contestant gets.” They spend the next few hours talking about what the rest of the year should hold for them. Hopefully a sense of normalcy. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *I’m not 100% sure it that’s a word I’m gonna use it  
> **I know that in the books they room with their grade but I wanted to change it for my story  
> ***I’m 99% sure this is how you spell it  
> **** I know, or I believe, that there is only one teacher per subject in the canon but I decided to change it so that there is a advanced teacher and a "regular" teacher for each subject in my story
> 
> Next chapter: A week or so has passed since they went to Diagon Alley and they are getting ready to leave for the Quidditch world cup. While getting ready Sirius confronts Draco about the incident with Lucius. They portkey to the game, have a run in with Nott and watch the game. Then disaster strikes. *This is the rough summary of what I’ll most likely to but we’ll see where my mind takes me :)


	3. The Triwizard Tournament

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A week or so has passed since they went to Diagon Alley and they are getting ready to leave for the cup. While getting ready Sirius confronts Draco about the incident with Lucius. They portkey to the game and enjoy the World Cup.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hate my speech class, I’d rather not graduate college. As promised her is the next chapter on the 17th, I give you a gift on my birthday. I hope you guys enjoy it. My friend and I edited it for grammar and stuff but if I missed anything let me know please. Kudos and reviews make me smile, I'll try to update in the beginning of October. ENJOY ❤️🧡💛💚💜🤎🖤🤍

It’s been a week since the  whole “incident” and Draco has been avoiding talking about it at all turns. Sure, Harry had tried to bring it up and talk about it in the beginning but after Draco refused many times he gave up. He knew that from the way Hermione, Ron, and Ginny look at him, and the way they whisper amongst each other, that they know something was wrong but they have yet to confront him about it. Which is nice but also.... Draco doesn’t know how he feels about it to be honest. Like he doesn’t want to tell them anything, he doesn’t want to bother them with his problems because they already do enough for him. With Harry though, no matter how much it annoys him he knows that he does this because he cares. He knows that Ron, Gin, and Mione care… but it’s different with Harry. Does that make sense? Probably not. 

Currently Draco is sitting in the middle of Ron’s room sorting through his stuff of what he wants to take with him to the World Cup. The other three are downstairs helping Molly with getting the food for all of them who are going. As Draco is sorting through his various scarfs looking for the right one to bring he hears a light knocking from the entrance in the room. 

“Can I come in?” Sirius asks from where his head is poking out of the hole in the floor. 

“Suit yourself, I’m sorry to say I’m not much company just trying to pick which scarf to bring.” Draco responds nonchalantly with a wave of his hand. Sirius shrugs his shoulder and goes to sit on the edge of the bed right behind Draco. 

“Go with the yellow and black one on the left, it looks the best.” Sirius says and Draco just nods as he shoves it into his little sack.He then starts sorting through his small stack of books. “So is there anything you want to tell me?”

“What do you mean?” Draco asks even though he knows exactly what he means. Draco feels his hands shake slightly more than usual, and his heart taps more violently against his chest. 

“Any sort of violent or hostile instances that have happened that maybe an adult should be aware of?” Sirius asks with a knowing look.

“Harry told me he wouldn’t say anything about what happened back with Miss-”

“Harry didn’t say anything about THAT, I forced him to tell me a little bit about what was upsetting him at Diagon Alley.” Sirius cuts him off.

Foot, meet mouth. 

“Oh.” Draco manages to get out.

“Yeah, oh. So now that we have discovered that there are two stories that need to be discussed, how about you start, hmm?” Sirius asks as he sits up and leans forward on the bed, his elbows resting on his knees and his face resting in the palms of his hands.

“What’s there to say?” Draco mumbles as he puts his focus back on the books in his hands. 

“Oh I don’t know… maybe why you were wearing glamour on your face your first week here?” 

Oh crap.

“Oh that?”

“Yeah, that. What’s going on? Come on, you know you can tell me anything.” Sirius says in a slightly gentler, more nurturing tone. “So why don’t we start from the beginning. What happened before Ron and Charlie rescued you?”

“It’s like I told Harry.” Draco says trying to resume the task at hand as to defuse the tension in the room. “Miss told me to do something, I gave her attitude, she corrected it. Simple. It really isn’t that big of a deal and it’s basically my fault so don’t overthink it please.” Draco looks over at Sirius and is startled by what he sees. His eyes are slits but the little that Draco can see is filled with fury. His hands are clenched so tightly together that they are white and his breath is very slowly, too slow. In short, he looks pissed.

“Siri?” Draco whispers out. He doesn’t usually call Sirius that. He did it sort of on accident the first time he met him and he terrified Draco so that was all he could get out. He sometimes calls him that when they’re joking around but only the two of them so the others don’t tease him. When he speaks to Sirius though he sees him try and force himself to calm down, for Draco’s sake. 

“Are you mad at me? Miss already reprimanded me, I know I’m not supposed to speak back to adu-” He stops talking when Sirius gets up from the bed and hesitates for about half a second before he sits down next to Draco. 

“No Draco. I am not mad at you at all. I am fuming, but not at you. You did nothing wrong.” His voice is as hard as steel that Draco has no choice but to nod back. 

“Why are you mad?” Dracos asks bewildered. Sirius closes his eyes as he takes a deep breath gathering his thoughts.

“Draco, how would you feel if you found out someone who was supposed to care for Harry had been hurting him?” Sirius poses this question to him.

“No one would ever hurt him. With how frecious his parents and godparents are*.” Sirius laughs softly at that response despite the tension.

“Oh I know, but let's say hypothetically someone did it and Harry wanted to keep it a secret. How would you feel about that?” Draco thinks about it for a few seconds before answering. 

“Well mad obviously. It doesn’t matter who has done it, and adults aren't supposed to-.... I see what you’re doing and it’s not going to work. It’s different” He says as he stuffs whatever book was closest into his bag.

“How?” When Draco gives Sirius a questioning look he clarifies. “How is it different?”

“Well, ummm…. He’s Harry and uh like no one should hurt him because he’s like a profit or something and um… He doesn’t deserve any mistreatment…” Draco quiets as he realizes he doesn’t really have a good reason besides his own self hatred. 

“You deserve to feel safe, and happy, and taken care of too. I’ll talk with James- I’ll keep the detail minimum- and have him make sure that you don’t have to go back there. Perks of being best mates with the head auror.” Sirius says as he bumps shoulders with Draco.

“But he doesn’t even like me.” Draco looks up curiously. 

“James would be livid to know that any child is in harm, know that.” Draco notices how he doesn’t deny the fact that Harry's dad doesn’t like him. He gives a little nod as he crosses the room to grab a blanket and starts to fold it. 

“You want me to talk about Diagon Alley don’t you?” Draco asks looking at his hands. He hears Sirius shift from where he is sitting behind him. He doesn’t wait to hear his reply though. “ You and your parents didn’t get along either after your sorting right?” He asks with the little bit of courage he had. 

“Yes, I mean we rarely got along before I went to hogwarts to be honest.”

“After?”

“Oof, after? There were a lot of howlers and angry letters exchanged. Words with my cousins, and hexes sent my way. The summer between my first and second year was not steller and I ran away and was disowned around third year. Honestly the details of some stuff I repressed, Moony could fill you in though.” Draco doesn’t say anything. What do you say to that? They both had very similar experiences: First heir to a proud pure blood line, bad relations with parents, sorted into the wrong house, disowned. Some would say that Draco is lucky to be out of that situation sooner than Sirius had been, but in all honesty he’s been put from one horrible guardian to multiple other ones. It wasn’t fair. Sirius had basically been raised by the Potters. Harry had all of them, Ron and Ginny had Molly, Hermione had her supper accepting caring pants. And what did Draco get? A piece of dirt father who threatened and hurt him if he even saw him in the street who would curse him if he found out Draco just thought of him as his father.

It. Wasn’t Fair. 

Draco didn’t realize that he had been openly crying until he felt someone turn him around and envelope him in a strong hug. Draco presses his face into Sirius’s chest and just starts to sob. 

“I know it’s not fair.” Draco can hear Sirius say. “And I’m not going to say one day you’ll totally be over it, sometimes I think about it and it still hurts. Your parents are supposed to love you unconditionally, and in reality that’s not the truth. There are always conditions. Now that can be committing genocide, I think that’s our condition for Harry and the rest of you kiddos. Ours happened to be not meeting your parents horrible standards or whatever you want to call it. You know what makes it better though? Having a great husband, like I do, who is there to pick me up when I fall. Having great friends who are ready to fight the moon for you. And adults who genuinely care about you. You have these things, I promise. Draco?” Draco slowly pulls his tear stained face away so he can look up at Sirius. “You are loved, believe me.” Sirius says as he pulls him in for another hug. 

And Draco chooses to believe him.

* * *

It was too damn early for this, Draco thought to himself as he breathed heavily into his scarf leaning on Ginny as they heading into the woods where the portkey was placed. It was no later than 5am in the morning and he was not a fan of it. He seemed to be the only one though. Everyone around him, adults and kids, are talking upbeat and excitedly to each other. How in Merlin's name could you be this happy this early in the day? Sure it was the Quidditch world cup and a one in a lifetime experience… but sleep. 

“How are you doing there sleepy?” Ginny asks him softly glancing down at where his head is placed.

“Why do we have to be up this early? It feels criminal.” He mumbles into his scarf.

“Because we need to get our tent and everything set up and the adults have to do these things to make sure we all stay safe.” She answers as she swings her arm around his shoulder, squeezing him. 

Correction, they need to do safety procedures so Lucius doesn’t try and hurt Draco or some crazy person tries to kill Harry...again. 

“Yeah whatever I’m going to sleep on you shoulder while walking, I’m talented like that.” He shrugs, closing his eyes, giving the tiniest smile when he feels her ruffle his hair. Honestly that’s the action that just makes him melt. It may be the crack of dawn but walking is so nice and peaceful and-

“DRAKE AREN’T YOU EXCITED?!?!” He is literally knocked off of Ginny and barely rights himself as Ron barrels into him.

“Ronald!” Ginny yells at him as she takes off her gloves and starts beating him with them yelling vulagiries at him. Draco doesn’t expect anything less from his friends. 

“Children-” He hates when he’s referred to as a child ''-we're here.” Sirius calls from where everyone else is standing at the top of the hill. In the center of the hill sits a broken and beaten brown boot, their portkey**. 

“Is everyone ready? Grab onto it in some way or another. If we leave one of you behind, that’s gonna suck for you.” They all stumble forward to grab it somehow. Draco has never used a portkey, he’s heard that it's not the most pleasant form of transportation.

“3...2...1…” Whatever his expectations had been before regarding the portkey, he was wrong. It only took mere seconds but it feels like he is being pulled every which way, then suddenly his ears fill with loud noises. He blinks a few times to get his eyes in focus and then takes in his surroundings. They landed in the middle of the area outside the stadium. There are many tents set up where other wizards are staying for the duration of the tournament. Draco could clearly hear the thousands of fans screaming and cheering for their respective teams. It was crazy, chaotic, and honestly stressed Draco out a little bit. 

“Hey.” Draco turns and sees Harry standing next to him. Harry laces his fingers with Draco, causing Draco's heart to stop beating for a moment. “I know your anxiety is probably a little peaked right now but it’s ok. I’ll stick with you the whole time we’re here so you won’t me alone.” All Draco can do is nod. How come when Harry talks to him it can cause Draco to forget how to function at times? 

He squeezes Harry's hand slightly and follows him into the tent that they are all staying in. God magic is so cool. The outside makes it look like one 3 at most could fit in it but inside there is more than enough space for all 15 of them. All that matters though is the empty bed that laid behind the curtain tucked in the far right corner. He quickly makes a beeline for it, ignoring the snickering Harry that is following him. He whips the curtain aside and flops him down, signing happily into the pillow. Harry, for lack of a better term, tucks him in and Draco nestles into the comfort the bed provides.

“Ok guys we are going to head out for a couple hours to figure some stuff out. Rest, eat, when we come back be ready to go to the game.” Lupin calls to the kids as the adults head out. 

“Prongs, I need to talk to you about something…” Draco hears Sirius say to Auror Potter as they head out, and though he knows exactly what he’s telling him, and he okayed it, he still has a bad feeling. So he just closes his eyes and tries to will himself to a couple hours of blissful sleep.

* * *

_ There is screaming from every direction. Draco tries to turn and run away from the voices as they get louder but he’s unable to make a step. He looks around and sees tents on fire and smoke filling the sky illuminated by the flames. There’s chanting that he can hear off in the distance that’s getting louder and louder by the second. He finally gained control of his feet and stumbled off into the darkness running to god knows where. He tries to glance back back to see if anyone is following him but that causes him to trip over a log he didn’t see. He falls hard on the ground, his face sliding in the dirt. He hears someone's footsteps stop behind him. He turn around and sees a black cane that is placed threatenly under his chin causing him to look up and see a mask of silver on someone's face as they- _

“Draco! Wake up!”

Draco shoots up from where he was just sleeping pleasantly. He springs up, hand pressed to his chest as he pants, trying to calm himself. He is completely drench in the cold sweat that his… dream caused. He feels someone gently touch his shoulder and he launches himself to the other side of his bed on the ground. Still reeling from his dream and unable to differ between what his dream was and what reality is as of present. 

“Hey, Draco breathe. It’s ok, you’re awake and safe.” The person in front of him says, holding their hands up in a surrender position. Draco rubs his hands against his eyes a couple times before he’s able to focus and see that it’s… 

“Cedric?” Draco asks, hearing how raw and broken his voice sounds.

“Yeah bud, it’s me.” Cedric looks the same as the last time Draco saw him besides the inch or two that everyone seems to have gained over the summer  **but** Draco. He’s got his thick, brown hair styled stupidly as per usual. He’s wearing a black and red sweater and scarf, in support of the Bulgarian Quidditch. His eyes though held much concern and worry for Draco, he could tell that. Realizing everything that had just transpired Draco feels quite embarrassed and gets up from the floor to sit in his bed. 

“What are you doing here?” 

“My father and I got here earlier but had to see some things before we were able to meet your guys. I just got to your tent Harry told me you were back here taking a nap. When I moved the curtain aside I saw you in a state.” He answers carefully, gauging every word as to not say something to set Draco off. 

“Oh. It’s nice to see you. I missed you.” He says looking up at Cedric, smiling lightly. Cedric smiles back at him and gestures for him to move over so he can sit next to Draco. 

“I missed you too bud. I got worried when you just stopped writing me letters, but Ron owled me and told me you were staying with them and you’d explain everything when I saw you in person.” Cedric says bumping his shoulder next to his, looking at him waiting to answer. His eyes hold patience though. Like he’d stay here as long as Draco needed him to. Ever so reluctantly Draco began to fill Cedric in on the events from the last couple weeks. 

* * *

Cedric's reaction to what Draco tells him is as expected. He instantly goes into overprotective brother like mode, while silently trying to figure out how to get revenge on the people who have hurt Draco. Honestly though Draco is ok with this. To most it would seem as if Cedrics reaction was passive, as if it didn’t affect him, but Draco knows him better than that. He could read Cedric like a book, sometimes it was too easy though… but that’s neither here nor there as of now. 

Despite the gloomy mood that Draco had been in for the better part of the day he wants to try and enjoy the tournament. This is something that he isn’t privileged to a lot, same as his friends, so he wants to enjoy it as much as possible. Once everyone in the tent had calmed down and was put together the mass group headed out to the pitch to watch the game. They were chanting for different teams: The Irish or The Bulgarians, depending on who they wanted to win. Draco was really looking forward to the match and the pomp and circumstance that came with it. 

He was also looking forward to making fun of how stupid his friends are bound to act. 

The adults were sitting with the minister in his box with some other people because politics, and the kids were sitting in the general seating section. Draco didn’t mind though to be honest. Whenever he was around other adults, specifically ministry workers it got awkward and uncomfortable. Mainly due to Lucius and them being convinced that in his time with him he has been trained to be a mini death eater, waiting for the perfect chance to strike. So general seating was the perfect option in his opinion. They are ascending up the stairs when Draco feels someone smack right into him causing him to almost fall on his face but is luckily caught by Hermione.

“Awwwe, so close.” Draco feels shivers run down his spine as he connects the voice to the person. 

Theodore Nott. 

Nott is a third year (like Draco) Slytherin (not like Draco) at Hogwarts. He had been Draco's best friend growing up. He's from one of the few families that Lucius had approved of so the two of them hung out all the time. He knew things about Draco that most were not privileged to. But that all changed once Draco had been sorted into Hufflepuff. He had led the pack of Slytherins in mocking Draco relentlessly for his sorting. He’d been the one beating Draco to a bloody pulp before Harry, Ron, and Hermione had rescued him. And he is the one that likes to torment and bully Draco at every chance he gets. Which apparently includes, but is not limited to, the Quidditch world cup. 

“Nott” Draco addresses him in an even tone, trying to avoid as much conflict as possible because he would like to not get thrown out by Harry and Ron fighting Nott. 

“I didn’t know that they allowed blood traitors and failures like you here. I really have to have my father speak to them about developing any standards for the foreseeable future.” He responds in a bored tone inspecting his nails.

“Watch it.” Harry regards Nott threateningly. 

“What are you gonna do about it Potter? You already have a mudbloods blood going through your veins so I wouldn’t say you’re much better than this thing.” He gestures to Draco. 

Draco barely has enough time to react and catch Harry so he doesn’t physically assault Nott for insulting his mother in such a horrific and disgusting way. She may be muggle born but she’s the best damn potions master the wizarding world has ever seen. In Dracos humble opinion at least. 

“Well I must be going, I have box seats you see. I hope you… vermin have an exciting time. Best be careful, you never know what activities await at these kinds of events.” He says as he walks away, not sparing a second glance at the group. As they continue their journey to their seats Draco can’t shake the sick feeling he has after that comment Nott just made. Activities? Can he mean something by that? Best not worry about it. It’s probably nothing… hopefully. 

* * *

The game started with a loud band. Not that the game was quiet beforehand, no. There were fans screaming, chanting, and music playing. Normally these kinds of situations cause Dracos senses to become over-stimulated but right now he was having too much fun with his friends to care. Also the couple of spells that Hermione had casted to buffer the noise helped. 

The bang was the result of the fireworks, it silenced the crowd for a total of five seconds before they started screaming even louder. Draco wasn’t sure what the fireworks actually turned into because less than three seconds later the first team zoomed onto the field with green and silver smoke trailing behind them. The Irish. Fred and George started screaming and cheering louder the Draco had ever heard them yell before which caused him to laugh hard. They soared to the sky and another firework went off turning into a dancing leprechaun. The next team shoots through the firework causing it to dissolve as the team decked in red and black do various turns and tricks on their broom. The Bulgarians. Harry, Ron, and Ginny start screaming and cheering once they make their appearance. 

The Minister of Magic steps out onto his balcony holding his wand to his neck, which causes his voice to boom across the whole stadium. 

“Welcome to the final of the 422nd Quidditch World Cup. Let the match...BEGIN!” He declares as he flicks his wand out and the snitch zips out of his wand. 

And they are off. 

The players are off like a bat out of hell. They are zipping across the sky, the chasers tossing the quaffle to each other too fast for Draco to even keep his eyes on. The Bludger seemed to be trying to interpt where they would try and score. As he dived left to try and save the ball one of the irish players tossed it to their teammate and-

“TROY SCORES!! 10 POINTS TO IRELAND!!!” A mass amount of cheers mixed with boos fill the stadium. But there is hardly any time to celebrate this victory as the Bulgarians toss the ball back and forth speeding towards the end zone. One of the Bulgarian players whips the ball so fast Draco cannot contain it in his eyes and they score. “VOLKOV SCORES! THE SCORE IS TIED AT 10 TO 10!!” 

Draco has never experienced a Quidditch match like this before, it’s spectacular. 

* * *

The match had been some of the most fun that Draco had had in awhile. To be honest, he needed this. He can’t remember the last time in recent memory that he had felt so much joy, it was a nice change of events. The winner of the match, and the whole Quidditch world cup had been Bulgaria. It had been a very intense and fair game, but in the end they had pulled through. 

They had been celebrating the win for the past couple hours. Everyone had returned to the tent. They had been eating, playing games, singing, the whole shabang. After a while Cedric and his father had gone off to his tent. Draco loved hanging out with him, but the tension of not talking with Cedric about him wanting to participate in the tournament was quite heavy in their interactions. Is it too much to ask to have your friends stay safe???

Currently Harry, Ron, Hermione and him are sitting by the fire eating a bag of something and listening to music being played from the record player. His head was resting in Hermione's lap as she rubs his head. 

“Did you enjoy yourself today?” Hermione asks him and he just nods into her hand. 

Suddenly they hear screaming coming from the outside. The adults from the tent all grab their wands and sprint outside. Ron, Hermione, Ron, and Draco all cautiously stand up from where they were just laying on the ground and head to the entrance of the tent. As they step outside Draco looks and sees the fires off in the distance and hears chanting from the distance getting louder second by second. Just like his dream.

Fuck. They need to run...NOW

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * when I use plural I mean both Lupin and Sirius  
> ** As much a fan I am of Harry Potter, not quite sure how to write the portkey scene so I tried my best
> 
> Next Chapter Summary:Survival isn’t guaranteed so all Draco can do is run and pray.


	4. Survival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Survival isn’t guaranteed so all Draco can do is run and pray.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're a US citizen, 18 years old or older. VOTE PLEASE
> 
> Hello all I hope you're all well, I've been a little stressed with school, friends, and the over all state of the country I live in lately so this took longer then I would have liked. None the less I hope you enjoy it. Here it is, I hope you like it. Kudos and comments make me smile and give me more of a drive to write. Constructive criticism is welcomed just don't be mean. I apologize for any grammar errors, we tried our best. Stay safe and healthy ya'll. 💙❤️🧡💛💚💜🤍🖤
> 
> TW//There is mentions of abuse (as there is for the whole story, I will note if it is more descriptive though) and torture this chapter. The chapter is not bloody or anything, a crucio is being used I will do a ^ before the torture begins and a ^ at the end of it.

Everything seems to happen at once. Draco looks around and what he sees honestly makes him want to throw up. There are people’s bodies floating in the sky, muggle and muggle born if Draco had to guess. There are at least a hundred tents on fire or destroyed. People are running past screaming. Some words and others just in pure fear and confusion. 

Draco hears a group of people chanting something in unison, he can’t make out what it is because of the chaos that is happening right now but after his years of living back at the manor he’s sure that if he really wanted to he could guess. Call it his ability to use his context clues or trauma and abuse. Breaking the horizon Dracos sees the group emerge. They are decked out in all black with stone masks covering their faces to hide their identities from others. Cowards. In their hands they carry torches and on top of their heads rests a tall black hat. Just as Draco suspected.

Death Eaters.

Draco's eyes go huge with terror as he starts to comprehend what is truly going on. Death Eaters are attacking the camp with the intention harming any muggle, muggle borns and blood traitors alike. Draco then feels a hand wrap tightly around his wrist and his flight or fight response is triggered. He uses his other free hand to grab his wand from where it is tucked securely in his waistband with a spell on his lips. Right before he can release it however he sees that the person who grabbed him is none other than Sirius. 

“Good reflexes kid but hopefully you won’t need to rely on them today.” Without waiting for a response he is dragging Draco… somewhere. With each step they take Draco can feel the grip on his wrist get tighter and tighter, there will almost definitely be a bruise there tomorrow. He knows the amount of pressure needed to cause a bruise. 

“Sirius...Sirius...SIRIUS!” Draco yells as he finally pulls his arm out of his grasp forcing them both to stop moving. Sirius whips around to look at him a look of fury evident in his eyes and it causes Draco to take a tiny step back in surprise. They are a significant distance away from the death eaters but they are slowly making their way over. 

“What Draco?” Sirius asks with impatience leaking into his speech.

“What...Where...How-” Draco tries to form his words into sentences in the hopes that Sirius can tell him what is going on but he’s having no luck. Sirius cuts him off and places his hands tightly on Draco’s shoulders.

“Draco, there are Death Eaters cursing everything in sight. If they see you: the former Malfoy heir turned Hufflepuff blood traitor they won’t just hex you, they won’t even stop at one or two curses. We need to move  **right now.** ” He didn’t even finish talking before he resumed his path through the tents at an even quicker pace with Draco barely keeping up. 

After some amount of time, Draco’s not sure how much everything seems to be happening so fast, they reach the edge of the forest. 

“Prongs 2.0” Sirius shouts into the darkness. Maybe he has finally lost it… Draco thinks as they stand outside of the seemingly empty woods. After a few seconds of staring at nothing they hear a rustle and an invisibility drops to reveal…

“Harry!” Draco cries as he rushes forward and hugs him tight. He wraps his arms around Harry's middle section and rests his head on his chest breathing him in. He hears Harry whisper his name as he rubs his head. Draco forgets that Sirius is right behind him, that Death Eaters are literally hunting them and will torture them if they are found, that he is terrified that his dream may come true. He just feels safe on Harry right now. 

“Harry, protect Draco and go through the forest to get back to the portkey and take it back to the house. Myself or someone else will meet you there, ok?” Draco knows he should feel offended by the fact that Sirius told Harry to protect him like he’s a child but the fear of being hunted is setting back in.

“Of course.” Harry promises and then Sirius is back off towards the growing flames. The two Hogwarts students look at each other fear for themselves and Sirius evident on their faces. Harry takes a deep breath as he moves from Draco and laces one of their hands together.

“Come on, let's go meet the others at the house.” Harry says as the two of them head deeper into the forest. They just had to head through the forest, they would be fine.

Right?

* * *

Wrong. Wrong. WRONG! Draco was so very wrong. Shit. Shit. Shit.

Maybe some explanation would help? Probably. 

It had been fine at first, Draco had clasped onto Harry’s hand tightly worrying that if he let go Harry would disappear like dust in the wind. Draco had the invisibility cloak hanging from his arm. Harry had suggested that Draco put it on but Draco had stupidly assured him that they were fine in the forest and no Death Eaters were going to find them. Draco had been glancing up at Harry roughly every 5 seconds however Harry had kept his eye forward and a look of determination on his face that was only visible by the glow of his wand. He had however squeezed Draco's hand in reassurance that everything was gonna be ok. 

Liar.

It had seemed that after what felt like their millionth step through the forest they were reaching the end of it. They could see a light on the outskirts that must have been Sirius, Lupin, or Harry's dad waiting for them at the portkey. Draco and Harry had both released a sigh of relief. Draco’s far more wobbly and unsteady than Harry’s. It had been his own fault though, thinking he could predict the future or something. Stupid. They both had quickened their pace into a light jog, anxious to get home and fall into their beds to sleep respectively. However, as they had drawn nearer and got a better look at who had been by the glowing light of a wand they had been able to tell that it was in fact not Sirius or Lupin or Head Auror Potter. It was in fact two death eaters, one had had a mask on so their identity was hidden and the other no other than Lucius Malfoy. 

“Draco... Run.” Harry had said in an extremely monotone voice, already getting in a dueling stance. But Draco could see the worry mixed with fear in his eyes. 

“Harry no I-”

“Draco, I know you can fight well. There is a reason you are the top student in your grade, but I was trained by the head Auror, my father. We are currently facing two death eaters, one of them being your father and I have a feeling they aren’t after me for once. I cannot fight them to the best of my ability if I am worried about you taking them on next to me. So for once listen to me, put on the cloak and  **run** !” Harry hissed out the last word as he lunged forward yelling hexes at the two people in front of them. If you could even call them people. There was green and red being blasted at and past Harry and the masked death eater. Draco had felt frozen where he had been watching them. But then he remembered there was another person there, Lucius. He saw him staring at him and the most foul disturbing smile spread across the elder Malfoy's face. 

“Keep this one busy, remember not to harm him though. Remember the plan.” Lucius had said to the other Death Eater earning a nod from him. The plan? What plan? Draco wondered but was soon brought out of that when he saw Lucius heading his way. He started to stumble back from fear as he approached him. Lucuis snapped his cane revealing his wand but as he had raised it to cast something he was hit by a jet of green by Harry. 

“DRACO!” Harry yells to him with terror and fear burning in his eyes, but not for him, for Draco. “ **RUN** !” 

Draco didn’t need to be told again. He didn’t wait and see if Lucius was getting up after being hit by Harry. He didn’t look to see if Harry was winning the fight. He would never forgive himself for that as long as he lived for leaving Harry to fend for himself. He didn’t even look to see which direction he was running. He just ran.

* * *

So here he is, running through the woods. Getting branches smacking him in the face left and right. His wand clutched in his left hand however he wouldn’t dare cast lumos in the fear of it attracting unwanted attention. He had the cloak clutched in his hand but if he put it on it shot his mobility skill down by 75% and he would rather get caught then lose the invisibility cloak. If his father didn’t catch and kill him head Auror Potter would for losing it, without a doubt. Everyone knew how much it meant to Harry.

Harry.

He had just left him, the Chosen One, fighting off Death Eaters like he wasn’t the goal. Draco was a nobody, no one cared about him of course they’d be after Harry. But hadn’t they said that they were to harm him for some plan or something? Draco couldn’t remember anymore, everything was so jumbled. One thing was for sure, he would never forgive himself for abandoning Harry. Leaving all alone while he ran away like a coward. It’s disgusting, it makes Draco feel sick to his stomach like he’s going to throw up. ……… Nope he actually is going to. He lurches over and he vomits everything solid and liquid he has consumed in the last 12 hours. He really doesn’t deal with stress or guilt well, Molly would say that’s what he’s so skinny. He leans his back on a nearby tree as he tries to gather his breath and himself. 

He closes his eyes and tries to calm himself. Breath in…. Breath out… In….Out…. Yeah that didn’t help. Apparently when you are being hunted down by your father you can’t magically calm yourself down by doing your calming exercise. Who knew? He is about to push forward deeper into the forest when he hears a snap of a twig in the distance. He doesn't see what caused that to happen. Quicker than a blink of an eye he whips the cape out covering his whole body in one grand swoop. He waits a few seconds to see if he hears anything else but is only met with silence. Feeling reassured by that response he continues into the woods until he feels something tug on the back of the cloak. Thinking that it is just him getting it caught on a tree branch he tries to tug free but is met with a person whipping it off of him. He looks and sees no other than Lucius Malfoy towering over him. He found him. 

“Hello Draco” Lucius says in no louder than a whisper. The power that he knows he holds evident in his voice. Draco tries to cast a spell to defend himself but Lucius’s eyes move faster then Draco can and forcefully grabs the wand from his hand. “You won’t be needing this.” He tucks it into his sleeve moving forward. Draco tries to get away but only manages to stumble backwards and trips over some overgrown log laying on the ground. He falls hard as his head makes contact with the ground causing stars to take over his visions for a second. He tries to regain composure and pushes himself up slightly and goes to try and stand right as a smooth black wand is placed to his throat causing his blood to run cold and heart to quicken. 

“What do you want, Lucius?” Draco tries his best to sound confident however the tremble in his voice betrays him. The pure evil grin spreads back over Lucius’s features. “You told me to leave you alone, and I have. Why can’t you just leave me alone?” Lucius’s grin drops from his face and it is contorted onto a look of pure rage and fury. Far more terrifying than the smile that he had mere minutes ago. He leans down close to Draco where their noses are practically touching, not saying anything for a few seconds, just staring into his eyes. Scaring Draco to his core.

“Did you think it would be that easy?” He asks. No, Draco knew it wouldn’t be as easy as just walking away from him. But he had hope that the universe would cut him a break for once, evidently not. “You were a disappointment from the moment you were born, I knew it but your mother refused to acknowledge it. I tried to train you as well as I could-” Training? Really? That’s what they were calling it now? Wow. “-but you just wouldn’t take it. And then you had to be sorted into Hufflepuff of all the houses and be friend blood traitors and mudbloods alike. Disgusting.”

Most of the time Draco thinks before he speaks, he considers his words, weighs the consequences and makes a decision based off of these facts.

“And I don’t regret it for a second.” 

But not this time. A look of glee that Draco hasn’t seen in years returns to his father's face, he knows what’s to come. He’s known since he saw him in the tournament. It was only a matter of time. 

“I guess it is time for another lesson.” 

Draco closes his eyes and takes a breath, his first steady one of the night. He thinks of Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. He tries to think of Lily teaching him new potions or Lupin offering him chocolate when he’s down. He tries to think of anything that can take him away from there. It’s never helped before, but there’s a first time for everything. 

^ “ _ Crucio” _

Draco’s vision goes white as his spine curves off the ground forming a very well defined arch. It feels as if a thousand flaming swords are trying to tear in apart from the inside out. His mouth forms a perfect o shape as he goes to scream but no sound comes out. His fingers start bleeding as he claws at the ground trying to grasp onto something, anything, that might be able to ground him. Nothing could distract him though. It doesn’t matter how many times it’s done to him, the pain that courses through his body and the strain on his mind is always different and somehow worse. 

The searing pain suddenly stops as the spell is broken. His sight slowly starts to return and his breath comes out in quick short pants. As if he has just been cashed around the quidditch pitch. As his spine returns to the ground he rolls to his side in the fetal position as he tries with all his to not let the tears fall from his eyes. He does not want to give Lucius the satisfaction of seeing him cry. He closes his eyes as he tries and fails to calm his breathing. In… Out… In…. Out…. Draco slowly opens his eyes and sees Lucius crouching right in front of him.

“You don’t think that is it? Do you?” He asks him slowly, carefully articulating each word, not waiting for a response. 

“ _ Crucio!”  _

Just like that the pain was back and so much worse because of the weakened state Draco was now it. His fingers clawed at the ground again, his spine once again arched off the ground, and his mouth was back in that formation. Now instead of silence though a piercing scream was released from within his gut as he can’t take the torture in silence anymore. Tears leak from his eyes as he begins to accept his fate. This is it, no one is coming to save him. He is going to be tortured to insanity or until Lucius decides to take pity on him and ends his life. He’s never going to gossip with Ginny again. He’s never going to stay up late talking with Cedric in the common room. He’s never going to pull pranks with the twins or get teased by Ron again. He’s never going to tell Harry- ^

“DRACO!”

Lucius jumps away as another person's voice courses through the air targeted at the two of them. Unable to move a muscle in his body Draco’s falls to the ground on his right side. He sees three figures sprinting over but can’t make them out as his vision is getting blurrier and blurrier by the second. He sees one person over to where he assumes Lucius, or he corrects himself as he hears the snap of someone apparating. In front of him he sees someone with very blurry ginger hair kneel in front him.

“Draco...Draco… Can you hear me?” Draco thinks that that voice sounds oddly familiar to Professor Evans or Lily or whatever he is supposed to call her. However he is unable to respond as he just stares ahead blinking, the darkness creeping closer and closer. He hears her say something else to him but he’s unable to make it out as unconsciousness tries to take over his body. 

“Hey buddy” 

Harry.

Draco doesn’t need 20/20 vision to know who that voice came from. He blinks and tries his hardest to be able to see Harry. It helps… barely. Harry is now laying on his side right next to Draco carefully caressing his hand through Draco’s hair.

“I ran like you told me to.” Draco says so broken and quietly that he doubts even Harry's mom heard him. But he knows that Harry did because of the ever so slight shift in his eyes. 

“I know you did, and you did so well. I’m so so so proud of you, ok? I just need you to hang on a little long. Sirius and Remus are on their way and they are going to help you. You are going to be ok, I promise.”

“You promise?” Draco asks tears return to his eyes as his body is now taken over by shivers that he is unable to control. Harry sees this and turns slightly before he is laying some cloth over Draco but it doesn’t subside them at all. 

“Of course, forever.” 

“Forever.” Draco manages to get out. He doesn’t know how much time passes that they are like that as Draco tries to fight off the darkness. For Harry. It feels like several tortuous hours for him, but time after being tortured is always longer. He distantly hears the sound of more voices yelling to them. Maybe it’s those two people mentioned earlier, they’re here now though so maybe Harry won’t mind if he takes a nap. Well he’s talking quite a bit at him right now, he stayed awake for Harry this long. He deserves a nap now.Just let him close his eyes…

* * *

_ Wakes up, thinks he sees Harry it’s james, they say things, Sirius and Harry check in and he talks with all three of them, Sirius says that they’ll fix the living situation _

Those moving picture things that Harry would show Draco are all wrong. Whenever the main person from it would be knocked they would wake up by launching up to a sitting position gasping for breath. Then their injuries would only appear if they needed to have an emotional moment with another character. That’s not how it happens though. Draco can attest to that right at this moment.

He is laying on something soft with what he feels and thinks are blankets on top of him. His eyes are closed but he has been trying for the past chunk of time to get them open but that requires quite a bit of effort apparently. Hours or minutes could have passed in the time he’s been awake, he couldn’t say though. His hands are laying on top of each other on his chest and he keeps trying to move his hand but that would mean moving his body which is a no go right now. To put it shortly, his whole body is on fire. Draco would rather receive all poors on his OWL’s than keep experiencing the discomfort he’s in right now. 

He doesn’t really know a lot of what happened and he has no idea where he is. Opening his eyes would probably help him figure that out though. What he does remember is that Lucius was using multiple Cruciatus Curses on him, Harry and others showed up to stop him and he then passed out. So now he is here, and he’d sure like to know where “here” is. And he was going to damn it. 

He took a very deep, long, and slightly louder breath that did cause some pain to his ribs but so be it. He tried to relax every other part of his body, focusing only on opening his eyes. After roughly 13 tries he was able to gain enough strength to crack his eyes open but he was unable to make out a single thing. Everything within his field of vision was blurry. Draco imagines it’s what Harry sees in the morning before he puts on his classes. After a few minutes he is able to move his eyes from squinting to being completely open. Everything is still quite blurry but Draco thinks he recognizes the blurry surroundings. The red… nightstand… the ledge where someone is sitting… This must be Ron's room. Wait, who is that? There is someone sitting in the ledge by the window looking out at it but their back is turned. Draco can’t make it out in his disorientated state but the adrenaline is already pumping through his brain triggering his flight or fight response. It causes his pain to less, though not disappear, causing him to try and get out of bed. The problem with having your adrenaline pumping is that it doesn’t fix the other problems, for example your legs not working. Draco concludes as he falls to the ground with a solid and painful thud and he blinks at the searing hot pain. Before he can think of the next step he sees the outline of someone’s shoes in his vision he then feels a cool sensation wash over himself as a spell is cast on him. Right as he is about to panic wondering what was cast on him the pain in his body lessens significantly however his eye sight is still abysmal. 

“Draco, it’s me, James Potter, Harry’s dad. I’m not going to hurt you I promise, I just want to help you get back into the bed, you need to rest. I’m going to reach out to help lift you back to the bed, ok?” 

Head Auror Potter is here, that’s who the mystery person is, ok. Draco's brain is cranking in overdrive trying to understand what is going on. The silence however tells him that he is waiting for Draco to answer before doing anything. Draco goes to answer but realizes how dry his throat is so he just nods in affirmation. Head Auror Potter grabs and lifts him gently as he helps Draco back to the bed. He props Draco up with pillows so he’s not laying flat on his back anymore and then goes to sit in the chair next to the bed. Neither of them say anything for a little bit. One because he can’t talk and the other because he chooses not to. After a little bit of Draco squinting and unsquinting his eyes to try and see clearer the other takes pity on him.

“Draco stop, you're going to give yourself a headache. Here, take this glass of water and drink it  **slowly.** ” Draco carefully takes the water and drinks it at a gradual pace. He can feel his throat starting to feel a little bit better so he tests out talking.

“E…..e…..eyes… w...w….wor-” Draco tries to ask about what his sight is the way he is but for some reason he is still struggling despite the water. Head Auror Potter cuts him off though before he hurts himself somehow.

“Eyes? What is wrong with your eyes? Is that what you’re trying to say?” He asks Draco and receives a timid nod in response. “How about this, so you don’t hurt yourself I will tell you what happened and you give a thumbs up to agree or thumbs down to disagree. If you have a question we can do that silent movement game Lily taught you and Harry last time you were over. Ok?” He receives a thumbs up from Draco. 

“So Lily, Remus, Sirius, Amos and I found Harry engaged in a very intense battle with some Death Eater.” Draco looks down at his hands in shame at the reminder that he left Harry. “When we saw that we jumped into action and were able to knock them out. Amos took him to the proper authorities and the rest of us, after listening to Harry, decided to split up and look for you. Remus and Sirius in one direction, Lily, Harry, and me in the other. We tried to get Harry to go with Amos but he refused to leave you. We searched for an hour or so until we heard your… you.” Draco knows he means his screams but the two of them decided to leave that unsaid. 

“We found you and your fa- Lucius. I went after him while Lily went and tended to you. I tried to catch him, I promise you Draco I did, but he got away before I could do anything. When I went by you and the other two you had passed out as Remus and Sirius appeared. We rushed you to the hospital so they could treat you. They ran some tests, you stayed there for a couple days, and once they deemed it safe we brought you back to the Burrow to heal. Any questions?”

Any questions? Well, Draco could think of one or two things from that story regarding him that he wanted clarification on. But he would first like the question he tried to ask earlier and answer he thought with slight annoyance as he pointed to his eyes. 

“Oh yes your eyes…” He sounded nervous. Hearing head auror Potter sound nervous just made Draco more nervous. “When we took you to the hospital and they assessed your injuries they discovered that there had been some damage to your eyes.”

Damage? What kind of damage? Draco liked his eyes, he used them a lot. If something bad happened to them and he couldn’t see he would be more of a target and more of a burden then he already is. Draco tries to not make himself totally freak out just yet.

“Due to the extensive exposure and torment under the curse your retinas have been severely damaged. This means that your vision, that you see now is permanent.”

Oh. Draco doesn’t move or think for that matter. His head has absolutely no thought about this. However the rest of his body does as his breathing starts quickening and his hands shake and then his panicked thoughts catch up with him. How bad is the damage? Is it going to get worse? Can they fix any of it? Is this going to be what he sees for the rest of his life? The more he thinks of it the more freaked out he gets. 

“Oh god. I knew I should have waited for them to tell you. I don’t know what to do. Fuck.” Draco hears the other say but he can’t focus on that as he starts losing it more and more. Suddenly he feels two soft hands on him. Definitely small and softer then Head Auror Potters. But when he looks up he sees what looks like him, but would Draco know his eyes are broken anyway. Just then the person who was holding his hands seconds ago slides something on his face, a pair of glasses actually. Just like that the room becomes so much clearer. Like they were before the whole incident. He sees Sirius glaring heatedly at Head Auror Potter who looks guilty for some reason. And then his eyes land on the person sitting on the edge of his bed holding his hands once again.

Harry. 

“Hey” Harry says softly, giving Draco’s hands a tight squeeze. “How are you feeling?”

“O-o-o-k, I g-g-g-guess.” Draco manages to stutter out no louder than a whisper. He hopes that this stutter isn’t permanent like his eye damage.

“Ok is good. You’re talking now, which is good and you’re awake which is amazing.”

“H-h-h-ow long w-w-was I as-ss-sleep?” God this is going to get annoying real soon.

“A week, but it’s ok you’re awake now. We got all your supplies for school so there’s nothing to worry about with that.” Harry tries to reassure him but Draco eyes grow quite big at that. A whole week? He’s been asleep a whole week? Sensing his panic Harry tries to calm him. He moves from sitting at the edge of the bed to right next to Draco and places his arms around him as Draco leans into his chest. The steady beat of Harry’s heart makes Draco calm down naturally. He looks over and sees Sirius nudging Head Auror Potter, like he is trying to get him to do something. Head Auror Potter looks annoyed and… slightly guilty? 

“Draco… Um, it has been brought to my attention that my attitude towards you has been wrong and not ok. I projected my feeling towards your father-” Draco flinches a little at that but it goes unnoticed by Head Auror Potter. “-which was inappropriate and unacceptable. I want to apologize and ask for your forgiveness in that manner and that we can start over.” 

Draco was caught quite off guard with the apology, and his face showed it.

“Draco you don’t have to accept his apology. If you need time that is completely understandable. You don’t have to forgive someone just because they say they’re sorry. Ok?” Sirius reassures Draco as he sees the overwhelmed look on his face.

“N-n-no it’s ok h-h-h-h-head aur-” Draco starts to say before he is cut off.

“Call me James or Mr.Potter.” 

“Ok. I-i-i-t’s I f-f-f-f-orgive you James.” As Draco says this James deflates into the chair as his stress and anxiety seems to dissipate like steam rising and vanishing from a cauldron. With that Sirius and James rise together as they leave the room and shut the door behind them. As he leans on Harry’s chest he becomes more relaxed and tired despite sleeping for a whole week. His eyes grow heavier and heavier until he is completely asleep on Harry feeling safe in his embrace. 

  
  


  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: Draco and company arrive at Hogwarts where they meet the two other schools and the meet the other two schools. Cedric gets Draco to open up about what happened at the World Cup.


	5. Mystery Boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone arrives at Hogwarts and they sit through the annual sorting ceremony afterwards the two competing schools enter the hall and Draco meets quite a pretty face. If only Ron and Harry could chill out...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look at little ole me, updating both my stories with three days of each other…. I need a girlfriend.
> 
> I know in the books Harry and everyone in his grade would be 14 but I want Draco to be a little bit older so he’s going to be 14 along with Ginny and their year, Harry and everyone his age (Hermione, Ron, etc) is 15, and everyone else is the same age as in the book. This is still Dracos third year and Harry's 4th. I just didn’t like writing about a 13 year old and relationships felt weird to me. Yes aging him up to 14 makes it better, don't come for me.
> 
> I hate college and speeches and homework and want to throw myself off a bridge. I only have three weeks left in my semester though. Instead of yeeting myself I guess I will write till 1am every night because that’s the only time I have to write. Also, as I have researched there are like no Hufflepuffs mentioned in the books (shocker) so I guess I will have to come up with some OC’s.
> 
> My friend and I proof read but if there are any typos I apologize. Kudos and comments always make me smile and want to write more, enjoy the chapter.

It had been… interesting since the Quidditch world cup and everything that had happened revolving around that. There was an unspoken tension amongst everyone in the burrow. The adults have meetings every night and the kids haven’t been able to figure out what they are talking about no matter how hard they tried. The kids had also not been allowed to leave the house at night unless they were accompanied by an adult. Harry is under strict rules to not go anywhere without an adult and this is yet to change no matter how much he objects. James' word is law, ESPECIALLY when it comes to his son. There was something brewing, kid or adult they knew of that, just what was brewing was the question.

Draco would have the same rules as Harry (given his torture and psychotic father and all) if he chose to leave the house. He was terrified, and everyone knew it. What he had gone through in the woods seemed to have changed him, both physically and mentally. He had clearly had his eyesight permanently damaged, Remus had promised to do everything possible to try and fix it but Draco didn’t have much faith. Worse than that though was the stutter he had developed. Draco had kind of stopped listening when they had explained it to him; something about his brain and the amount of torture and what not. All he knew was that he was going to have one MORE thing for people to point out about him. Because of this, and the literal torture Draco has been keeping to himself more than issue. It took him over a week to leave the bed, and even then Sirius literally had had to drag him off of it. 

After another week or so it got slightly better. He was talking and joking a little bit and then suddenly he was all better. He still stuttered and would jump if he was surprised but he seemed to be fine. Emphasis on seemed. The issue is that everyone was trying to get him to talk about it,  _ everyone. _ But when they would bring it up he would change the subject or simply walk away. Draco knew this only worried them but they couldn’t force him to talk, so after a bit most of them gave up. 

After what had felt like forever it was time for them to head to Hogwarts. As some of the adults were teachers they had already left earlier so the rest of the adults had taken the overwhelming number of kids to the station, they had boarded the train and left for Hogwarts. 

So, here they are all at their respective tables watching the choosing ceremony commence. Cedric and Draco were sitting next to each other trying to slyly eat candy that they had smuggled in without being caught and scolded. 

“How have you been?” Cedric asks him as the hall is taken over with applause as everyone claps once the ceremony has finished up. Draco just shrugs in response

“T-t-t-ired mostly. Been taking this n-n-n-new potion that P-p-p-p-professor Evans made me b-b-b-b-but as you can tell it has d-d-d-done little to h-h-h-h-help the stuttering.” 

“Well you know I’m always here and I will help you figure out what to do no matter what happens.” Cedric says, giving him a light squeeze.

“Yeah I know. G-g-g-give me a-a-a-another frog, l-l-l-l-looks like he’s gonna give another s-s-s-s-speech.” Draco sticks out smiling as Cedric presses a frog into his hand and they turn their attention back to their headmaster.

“I would like to wish a good evening to all of you here. I hope that you are all excited for what the rest of our year has in store for us. First off I would like to introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Art teacher, Professor Moody.” Despite the constant applause that had filled the hall mere moments ago the only people who were applauding were the teachers, and Draco would say that that was only because of Dumbledore. The rest of the students just stared at the rather odd looking man. He has ratty blonde hair that lands right above his shoulder. He is wearing a dirty long dirty green/brownish coat. There is a tall walking cane propped up next to him and the icing on the cake is the crystal blue glass eye. Everyone was staring at him, most in horror mixed with terror. Some with fascination. Draco looked at him with pure curiosity, and Moody shifted his stance and looked dead in Draco’s eyes. He doesn’t know if it was cause he was looking right at him, his stance, or the way he looked. But Draco could tell something wasn’t right about that man. He felt it, and he is going to figure out what “it” is. 

“Thank you Professor. Now, as I am sure you all know we have been blessed with the opportunity to host the Triwizard tournament. There are some rules that the ministry has put in place to maintain the safety of our students. The main one being that you must be at least 17 years of age-” 

Poor Dumbledore Draco thought to himself. The headmaster didn’t even get to finish his sentence before the hall broke out in chaos. Kids were yelling and… honestly it was mostly just kids yelling. Draco looked over at the Gryffindor table and couldn’t stop himself from laughing at the display the Weasley twins were putting on.

“SILENCE” Dumbledore's voice boomed throughout the whole hall causing everyone, even some of the teachers, to flinch at the sharpness of his voice. 

“Yes, the age limit is not something that we can discuss sadly. Let us welcome our two competing schools for the tournament. Firstly:  Beauxbatons!” 

The doors to the great hall opened to reveal the school of Beauxbatons. There was a mixture of female and male students both wearing light blue outfits. *Some of them were wearing a hat, dresses that stopped right at their knees with a shaw of sorts resting on their shoulders. Others wore light blue suits. They moved through the hall with grace, capturing the attention of many of the Hogwarts students, but Draco just wanted them to hurry up so that they could start eating (he was quite hungry). Once they reached the front they did some weird butterfly magic thingy and then moved to the right and stood in a group as Dumbledore greeted their Headmistress. 

“And Durmstrang of course!”

The students turn towards the entrance of the great hall and just see nothing in the pitch blackness for a moment. Suddenly many staffs hit the ground causing a resounding boom to echo across the hall. With the impact of the staffs fire sparks from the bottom of them and the group enters the hall. It was a mixture of female and males students. Wearing different versions of the uniform respectively but it was just a red top, black strap across it, tan pants, black boots, and a giant furry coat on it. They started to do tricks with fire and jumping and all that, but Draco wasn’t paying attention. In the mass of Durmstrang students entering the hall one of them caught his eye, or he caught their eyes. He’s unclear as to which one happened first. He was a male student, couldn’t have been more than a year older then Draco, with sharp features, wavy black hair, and piercing green eyes. Quite similar to Harry’s in fact. Their gazes met, and locked until the mysterious Drumstrang boy reached the front of the hall and had to move to stand with the rest of his school. 

“See something you like Draco?”  Zacharias Smith comments from where he was sitting across from Draco. Zach is a hufflepuff a year older than Draco. He’s nice enough, he has a tendency to get involved in situations where he is unwanted. He’s a gossip to put it lightly. 

“I d-d-d-d-don’t know what y-y-y-y-y-you’re talking about” Draco mumbles out feeling his neck heating up.

“Sure you don’t” He responds with an arch eyebrow

“Zacharias” *Steaven Jones says in a warning tone. Steven is one of Draco's friends. He’s a half-blood, with tawny skin. He has a slight spanish accent when he talks which Draco just finds endearing. He usually keeps to himself but will speak up when it comes to Draco. Apparently Draco has this effect on people. 

“Cut it out Smith” Cedric says in a warning tone. Both Draco and Zacharias roll their eyes at that. Draco at Cedric's overprotectiveness, Zacharias because he has nothing else to say.

“Now that we have welcomed all of our guests properly, let us eat!” With a flick of his wand Dumbledore summons the platters and food fills the tables of the great hall. 

“Finally!” Draco declares as he starts shoveling food onto his plate, not even bothering to look at it and just piles it into his mouth. He is so focused on eating that he doesn’t notice Cedric laughing at him or the person that appears at his side.

“Is zis seat taken?” 

Draco turns, with his mouth still full, to see the green eyed Drumstrang that caught his attention earlier. Draco chokes down the food in his mouth barely stifling a cough.

“Um…. I uh… I…” As eloquent as ever Draco he scolds himself.

“Of course” Cedric says as he tries to scoot over to give more room for mystery boy (gotta learn his name) a place to sit. He places himself in between Cedric and Draco. Draco tries his best to stare ahead and focus on his dinner but he can feel many eyes on him. He takes a nibble out of the piece of bread in his hands and then gathers whatever nerves he has to turn and look at the newcomer.

“H-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-hi” He somehow stutters out, preparing for a look of insanity that he has been getting from random students every time he speaks. This boy however just smiles at him.

“Hello” He speaks with a thick accent of some kind that Draco cannot place. “My name is Lex Meijer. It is a pleasure to meet you.” Draco just nods at that as he gets lost in Lex’s eyes. They stare at each other for a few-

“And his name is Draco, he’s usually more articulate but you know, long ceremonies, plus food can make one quite tired” Steven comes to Draco's aid. Crap, he’s just been staring at him, doe eyed for the past… time. Draco! Pull yourself together. Oh my god if Ron was here right now… He has to make sure no one tells Ron or the twins about this later. Right now- OH MY GOD DRACO TALK!!!!

“Oh um…. Y-y-y-yeah. I’m Draco.” He stutters out purposely ignoring the smirk that Zach is giving him.

“Yes, I zink we established that.” Lex says with an amused smirk

“Oh yeah, we did…” Draco tries to look over at Cedric, or Steven, even Zach for help but they all look back at him with amused smirks on their faces. “So you are from Drumstrang?” Draco asks as he hears a loud thud as Steaven slams his head into the table muttering something under his breath. It’s probably spanish, and it’s probably directed at Draco, and it’s probably not the nicest.

“Yes, and you are from Hogwarts. Maybe you could show me around the school sometimes. You know, so I don’t get lost?”

“Yeah, I c-c-c-c--can do that.” Draco nods his head quickly.

“So, are you into quidditch at all?” Just like that Draco feels a little more at ease. He’s still nervous obviously: There’s a  **very** attractive older guy sitting next to Draco and Draco  **thinks** that he might be flirting with him but how the heck is he supposed to know? Draco doesn’t know this stuff. Harry does. Ron does. Even Ginny knows more about this then he does. Despite his little internal freakout though Draco does enjoy talking with Lex. He’s a year older then Draco, plays quidditch, has a fascination with defense against the dark arts, and is very excited to be at Hogwarts. 

After sometime they got into a more relaxed conversation where Draco’s nervousness was still there, but a little less. He was even able to laugh a couple times, something he had not been able to do since the cup. As he turned to stretch because he has been sitting for such a long time his eyes look over the professor's table. There he sees Snape giving him a calculating look. 

Draco and Snape have an… interesting relationship to say the least. When he had been sorted and through his first year Snape seemed to tolerate him, he didn’t pick on him or mock him as he tended to do with all the other houses. Besides Slytherin of course. Over time though Snape seemed to reach out? If that’s how you want to put it. What that really means is that he would give Draco weird cryptic advice every now and then. Honestly Draco can’t figure out what his motives are, he just rolls with it. But the look he’s giving him now, he feels that it is going to come back and bite him in the butt later. 

He shifts his gaze further down and sees Professor Evans, Black, and Lupin all looking at him with amused looks on their faces. He snaps back around, face the same color as a tomato. 

“We should probably head to bed Draco.” Cedric says to Draco as he moves to stand away from the table. Draco nods, gets up with him and moves to follow Cedric only to stumble back to the table.

“It was really n-n-n-nice to meet you Lex.” Draco gets at, a slight blush dusting his cheeks.

“Maybe you can help ve tovorrow by taking ve around the school?” Draco can only manage a nod in response as Cedric pulls him out of the great hall.

“Pl-p-p-please for the love of g-g-g-god don’t m-m-m-mock me. You k-k-know how I get.” Draco says as they exit the hall and move head towards their common room.

“Oh, I don’t think it’s me you have to worry about?” Cedric says with a stupid smirk on his face?

“What are you talking about?” But before Cedric can even answer the question directed at him-

“Draco.”

Oh no. 

Draco turns around to see Harry, Ron, and Hermione all staring at him waiting for him to talk.

“Hey guys, wasn’t the c-c-c-ceremony so nice. I think that i-i-i-it was and-”

“Don’t even try blondie.” Ron cuts him off with a sharp voice. Draco looks at Hermione, trying to find some support but she just gives him a pitying look. 

“Who was that?” Harry asks him, his eyes narrowed.

“Who this? This is Cedric, I believe you guys met before. He goes to school here, he is a-”

“Don’t even try that Draco, we’re talking about the boy you were flirting with at your table, the one who is definitely too old for you. What were you thinking?” Draco loves Ron, he is one of his best friends and he would die for him. That being said, Ron can be **incredibly** overprotective of Draco. One time he hexed a boy just for asking Draco out. No one has asked him out since.

“Oh him? That’s Lex and he’s not  _ that _ m-m-m-much older then me. He’s only 15.” He tries to defuse the apparent tension before anything else happens.

“What did he want to know? Did he ask you any personal questions? Was he pressuring you for anything?”

“Guys, will you two calm down. I was there, nothing sinister happened.” Cedric says only for the other two to turn on him.

“Oh don’t you even start”

“We’ll be with you in a minute buddy boy” Draco looks at Hermione and mouths “help me” but she just holds her hands up in a surrender gesture. Traitor… While the other two are scolding Cedric for apparently “feeding Draco to the wolves” he tries to back away slowly and head to his common room unnoticed. Sadly, he only makes one step backwards before...

“So from what we head-”

“-and saw-”

“-you seemed to be hitting it off-”

“-with some mystery boy Dray Dray.’

Oh no, Fred and George. Arguably worse than Harry and Ron. 

“So who was that boy? A future boyfriend maybe?” Fred asks him with a stupid teasing smile on his face. 

“Yeah, I didn’t even think of that. Nope, I won’t allow it if you're too young to date.” Ron says with such determination that Draco almost agrees with them at first.

“What? I…. What is g-g-g-going on right now? I j-j-j-just talked with this b-b-b-boy and suddenly all of y-y-y-you are determining my f-f-f-fate? D-d-d-don’t I get a say in the m-m-m-manner?” 

“NO” is the answer he gets from Ron, Harry, Fred, and George. What the bloody- What is going on right now???

“What are you lot up to?” They all turn to the new voice that has joined them and see Professor Black standing there. 

“Uhhhhh” Harry just stares at him wide eyed, like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

“This doesn’t have anything to do with Draco talking to that lovely Drumstrang boy during dinner can it? Because Lily, Remus, and I were just watching them the whole time, it was quite adorable.”

Oh my god. If he could have someone cast avada kedavra on him right now he would think to thank them. In the afterlife of course. Had everyone been watching Nyle and him? 

“We were just talking.” Draco mumbled out, ignoring the chuckle that Professor Black let out.

“Sure buddy, now how about you all stop interrogating poor Draco and head off to bed. You do have classes tomorrow in case you forgot.” He says and he walks back to the great hall. The group dissipates, Gryffindor and Hufflepuffs going their respective ways. 

“If you a single word of this to anyone, I will murder you” Draco threatens Cedric with an icy look, but it does not have the desired effect.

“Sure buddy, you couldn’t even hurt a spider if you wanted to but ok…” He ruffles the smaller one's hair and they head towards the common room in a comfortable silence. 

“...So, do you think you’re gonna date him?”

Oh my god.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * https://aminoapps.com/c/harry-potter/page/blog/why-beauxbatons-academy-wouldnt-be-so-bad-to-attend/WWTX_ukjMdM2gvmkxkG85n0wpWPPZZ This is what I based their uniforms off of for Beauxbatons 
> 
> ** This is that I based the uniforms off of for Drumstrang https://www.quotev.com/story/13065244/Durmstrang-Girl/2
> 
> *** If you have not noticed, I suck at coming up with names. Any ideas would be appreciated
> 
> Next chapter TENTATIVE summary: School has been going on for a couple weeks now however after a rather bad full moon Lupin needs to take the day off, this means the advanced DADA teacher is going to fill in, Professor Moody. He decides to teach the unforgivable curses through demonstration, and he picks Draco to help with that.


	6. Author Note

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Author Note

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for going MIA, here's an explanation

So hey, I'm not dead...

I'm so sorry to all of my readers for taking almost three months to update this story there is no excuse for my lack of updates and I wanted to apologize for that. In November I wasn't working on it as much as possible because of finals and then my tiktok took off a little bit and that had all of my focus, but with that came some unwanted attention.

That came in the focus of having numerous transphobes. First, in December they came on to my account and harassed me and misgendered me amongst other things. During that time I wanted nothing to do with HP and needed a break. However, a few weeks ago it happened but it was so much worse this time. I didn't know if I wanted to keep taking TikTok or even open my AO3 account again, but here I am. I am a proud trans individual and I don't want any bigot taking what I enjoy away from me.

So I am back, I will be posting this chap by Sunday and will be updating once a month (hopefully). Thank you to anyone who has stuck around, again I am sorry. I really appreciate any and all support. If you have any questions don't be afraid to ask.

Much Love,

Evie 


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Draco goes to classes with Ginny as per usual... but why are all of the adults that seem to have it out for him subbing?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh look, they're alive. Sorry about being gone for so long, that was not my intention in any way shape or form, but there is a reason as to why. I have a cosplay tiktok as I have mentioned, Enbyevie. It is one of the things that usually brings me a lot of joy, however that’s not the most true right now. I have been speaking out and dealing with transphobia, it is incredibly disheartening and emotionally draining that caused me not want to do anything that was related to harry potter, including anything to do with Harry Potter. Though these things are still happening, I am learning to deal with it. I hope you understand my late update, thank you and enjoy the chapter. I appreciate all of you. Comment, kudos, follows and bookmarks are appreciated. 
> 
> *I will be renaming Nyle West (the drumstrang boy) Lex Meijer because I hate the name Nyle West
> 
> I'M SORRY I HAD TO POST THIS LIKE 3 TIMES THE FORMAT WAS BAD

School has been going on for roughly two weeks now, and it’s been nice. Yes, Ron is being overprotective every five seconds and Harry is just being weird. So normal. Draco has also been able to hang out with Lex more and has been getting to know him. He’s nice, patient, caring, and not to mention not that bad to look at if Draco is completely honest. However, Draco’s main goal as of late has been trying to convince Cedric every chance he gets to not put his name in, but he’s just starting to ignore Draco wherever he brings it up. Draco doesn’t think that it should be hard to understand. There is a reason that this tournament has been banned for so many years, it is legit a child death tournament. He thinks Hermione mentioned a popular book series dealing with children's death tournaments. Maybe if he brought this up to the school board they’d rethink their decision for the tournament... probably not. Pureblood elitist. 

“I don’t u-u-understand why y-you won’t listen t-t-o me,” Draco says in a slightly pouting manner. 

“Well first of all stop acting like a prepubescent child, you’re better than that.” Draco rolls his eyes at that and spreads jam onto a piece of toast and rolls his eyes and mumbles in understanding. “Second of all, I love you but I am not going to not even try just because you are a little nervous.”

“It’s more than a little. I just don’t want you to die in a death tournament in the claim of glory, what are you a Gryffindor?” Draco is not usually an aggressive or angry person but he is so worried about Cedric’s safety at this point

“You really want to bring up Gryffindors right now? Because I can think about a specific Gryffindor that we should be talking about…” Cedric says as he pours some pumpkin juice into his goblet and gives Draco a mischievous look.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Draco says as he shovels scrambled eggs onto his toast and takes a bite. 

“Sure you don’t, let's ignore the fact that you are interested in another older boy with brown curly hair and green eyes. If only he had glasses…” 

Draco the eggs stopped about halfway down the throat as Cedric called him out and dragged him through the mud. That was completely unnecessary. He starts coughing quite aggressively as if he is a cat that is coughing up a hairball. There’s probably a better comparison than that but Draco can only picture Crookshanks right now. Charming. 

“That...was…. Mean….” Draco wheezes out in between coughs. Cedric just smiles as he takes another sip from his goblet, failing to conceal his amused look. 

“Quite possibly, but you should try to compose yourself cause we have company coming over.” 

Crap. Draco decided to shut his mouth, realizing begrudgingly that Cedric had won this one. He tried to deliver a glare to Cedric as if to say that this wasn’t over but it seemed as if Cedric was too busy looking smudge over there so Draco just dropped it… for now. 

“Why does Draco's face look as if he's trying to intimidate a stop sign?” Smith asks as he sits across from the two other Hufflepuff at the table, grabbing a piece of toast off of the tower in the center with an amused look on his face.

“W-w-w-what’s a stop s-s-sign?” Draco asks as the heat starts to leave his face.

“A muggle thing,” Smith said with a mouth full of food and a dismissive hand. Draco was not making whatever a stop sign in his muggle fact for the day.

During his first year at Hogwarts, his friends and fellow housemates had discovered that he knew almost nothing about the muggle world and deemed it their duty to educate him if he would let them. And he let them do it. He was so eager to learn that they had set up a rule that he could ask for one in-depth explanation about a muggle thing a day because they needed silence from him at some point in the day. 

“I t-t-thought you s-s-said that H-H-H-arry was on h-h-his way over?” Draco questions Cedric taking another sip from his goblet.

“You thought I was what now?” 

Timing really is everything ain’t it?

Draco spews whatever pumpkin juice he was physically able on to Smith, much to his vocal objection and to the amusement of everyone around them. Sweet Merlin, this is the second time this morning that Draco has choked on his drink during breakfast. 

“I… um…. I….. Hi Harry.” Draco manages to choke out as he tries to clean himself up (ignore Cedric’s hysterical laughter) and stop coughing. He tries to dab the bit of juice out of his shirt, rather than looking down then at anyone else around him.

“Here you missed a spot,” Harry says. Draco looks up at him, blonde hair falling in front of his eyes. Draco opens his mouth about to ask Harry what he’s talking about, his unspoken question is answered. Harry swipes his thumb across the underside of Dracos lip, whipping off any excess juice. 

“Oh, this is too perfect.” 

Draco whips around to see Cedric and Smith smiling like that weird cat from the cartoon muggle movie Hermione loved so much. 

“I…” Draco has absolutely nothing to say to that and honestly feels quite dizzy right now. 

“You ready for potions Badger?” Ginny pops up, seemingly totally oblivious to everything that had just transpired. 

“Yep, l-l-let's go. I g-g-gotta go now, guys. You k-k-k-now...class.” He doesn’t wait for a response. He grabs Ginny’s hand and pulls her out of the great hall. 

“You know that running away from your problems isn’t a great solution, right?” Ginny asks him in a teasing tone as they stalk across the school. 

“Yep”

“And that I knew exactly what was going on, but I took pity.”

“Yep”

“And that we have potions.”

“Yep” 

“And that Professor Evans won’t be there because she has a meeting so Snape is taking over today.”

“...”

The two of them stop in front of the closed potions classroom door, staring at it like it’s a bogart about pop out any moment. 

“Crap” Draco breathes out, barely above a whisper.

“Yep,” Ginny says with a forced and slightly painful smile.

This’ll be fun. 

* * *

Professor Snape and Draco have one of the most complicated and confusing relationships since Dumbledore and Grindelwald. Severus Snape was his full name. He was the regular potions professor at Hogwarts. He is a half-blood. He was a death eater during the wizarding war. He had been a double agent for the order. He hated James Potter with a passion that can only be matched by his disdain for Draco. 

Draco hadn’t understood it at the time their relationship changed, and he still doesn’t. Before his sorting Snape had been affectionate to him, well as affectionate as Snape can be. He would visit Draco at the manor and give him private potions lessons. He would try and calm Lucius down after a relatively bad night, just for Draco. He even allowed Draco to stay at his home a couple of times even though it had put him in hot water with Lucius and ex-death eaters alike. So, given his affection for Draco, he’d assumed that his sorting would be something that wouldn’t affect Snape's view of him given everything. Draco had been wrong. 

As soon as that hat had spoken Draco and Snapes' relationship had changed forever. Draco hadn't expected special treatment when he walked into potions for the first time, but maybe something a little “warmer” than what the others got. He received the exact opposite. From that moment on Snape would grill Draco in class like he was a potions master, mock him in front of the class, and be right cruel and awful to him. Though it had seemed nearly impossible Draco had managed to get high enough marks, despite Snape's best efforts, and got into advanced potions with Professor Evans. Snape would still dock points and try to get at him outside of class but it was fine as long as Draco put effort into avoiding him. 

However, Merlin himself must have not gotten that Draco didn’t want to be around Snape because what are the odds Professor Lily would have a meeting during HIS potions class. 

“Draco?” 

“Hmm?” Draco looks away from the shut potion's door to make eye contact with Ginny. She looks at him with what he can only describe as a pained smile.

“We have to go in or else we’ll be marked late. Don’t want to make it any worse than it undoubtedly already is.”

“Yeah.” He sighs in defeat

“It’s ok, we’ll go in together.” She tries to reassure him.

“Together.” He says slightly more confidently as he pushes the potion room doors open and is greeted by their potions professor for the day. He is standing in the front of the classroom with his back to the door writing something on the board. 

“Thank you so much for gracing us with your presence Mr…. What are you this week” Snape remarks without turning around to greet the two new students. Draco catches the not-so-subtle jab at Snape's comment and judging by the snickering so do the Slytherins. 

“Draco will do sir,” He says in a meek voice as Ginny and him head over to their seats. Draco was often referred to as Black after his disownment but he had a feeling that would only set Snape off more. He could tell that Ginny was trying not to glare or retaliate against their professor. In the past that had just gotten them in more trouble, specifically Draco. 

“Lovely.” Snape draws out finally turning around and setting a tight glare on the blonde. “Let us begin.”

Class went on as classes usually did with Snape. This meant that he gave the Slytherins points for breathing, completely ignored the Hufflepuff's (minus Draco), left the Ravenclaws alone, and punished the Gryffindors for looking at him the wrong way. Draco had tried to hide behind Ginny and be unnoticed. He knew it didn’t matter that he knew more in this class about various potions than anyone else, Snape would find a way to embarrass and belittle him. 

“So you’re telling me,” Snape says to the class in a tired and aggravated tone, “that none of you know how to make a Draught of living death?”

“Draco does sir”

Draco is not a violent person, he is very much against it. However, right now, he is not above hexing a Gryffindor in the middle of class. It would have cost them nothing to just not say anything, why? 

“Oh he does, does he?” Draco caught a tiny smirk, almost unnoticeable, grace his professor's face. 

“Yes sir.”

“Well, why don’t you come up front and show us. Hmmm?” 

“I-I-I um….” Draco looks at Ginny for help but she just looks back at him, providing no help at all. 

“How about you stop stuttering like a fool and get up here to show your classmates how it’s done. Succeed by the end of class, I won’t do anything. Fail, and you’ll have detention with me for a week. Understood?” 

Draco knew he doesn't have much of a choice in the matter. He goes up to the front of the class stumbling over the two cinder blocks that he calls feet, much to the amusement of Snape. He tries to avoid looking at anyone in the class. Not Ginny, not any of the other students, not Snape. If he can just pretend that he’s back at the manor when he was welcomed there practicing potions for fun he could get this done. 

Sometimes Ginny asks him if he misses his time there and he always says no, but they both know that is a lie. He doesn’t miss the expectation or the rules or the blood purity that they enforced. He does however miss the feeling of being cared for and loved, even if it was conditional and not what love really is. It is the only kind of love he’d ever known, and he missed it. Now he’s just scraping by, barely surviving each new experience he has, and what makes it worse is he doesn’t have the comfort of love to get him through it. 

“Draco...” Draco snaps his head up and sees Snape gesturing to a clock that is counting down the seconds till the end of the class. The minute hand seems to be moving quicker than usual this morning. 

With that Draco took a shaky breath and started making the potion. He grabbed the wormwood and carefully poured the appropriate amount in the vial before dumping it into the cauldron. He then took a pinch of the powdered root and tossed it in as he stirred clockwise twice. His eyes darted to the dark brown clock. How had that much time passed in what feels like mere seconds? He hastily grabs the beans in one hand and the silver knife in his other as he crushes them above the cauldron and the juices drip in. Now he just has to stir it seven times and the potion will be finished. 

One…

Two…

Thre…

Four…

Five…

Six…

Sev-

Just as he’s about to do the seventh rotation of stirring the position the loud chime of the end of class rings across the whole school. Almost instantaneously Snape flicks his wand and all the ingredients and the cauldron disappear. He knows right then and there that his fate is sealed.

“Prof-” He tries in vain to argue against his impending doom. 

“I will see you in my classroom after dinner” 

“B-b-b-ut sir the ch-ch-choosing ceremony,” Draco says quickly before Snape can cut him off. He is met with a look that would cause even Lucius alarm.

“Tomorrow night then Draco,” He says in a cold and almost dangerous tone and without another word sweeps out of the classroom in all his dramatic glory. Ginny comes up next to Draco with his bag in hand and a pitying look on her face. 

“It won’t solve everything, but let's go see if the elves will give us some cake. That usually cheers you up.” Ginny proclaims as she links arms with her panic-stricken best friend and the two head towards the kitchen as Draco contemplates death itself. 

\----

Though Draco would still be assigned to the devil himself every night for a week, the lemon tart that he had been able to snag from the kitchen had helped lighten his mood ever so slightly. The elves there knew them by name which was always good when trying to get something from them. For Draco however, it was even better because they loved him. It had something to do with them viewing Draco as one of them when finding out about his disownment. Draco had at first felt unsettled by this, but hey, it had its benefits. 

After they had chatted and distressed a little bit the two of them had headed over to their next class, defense against the dark arts. Draco had mixed feelings about this class. He really didn’t like the dark art. He had grown up with it and had a first-hand account of what it was capable of (when wielded correctly). On the other hand, he did love Professor Lupin. He was an incredibly kind and patient man. One who offers Draco time whenever he needs it, Draco looks up to him. So, defense against the dark arts tends to be ok, most of the time. However, Draco wasn’t sure about today. It was the day after a full moon so their regular professor would be in bed resting, probably nursed back to health by Professor Black and having Professor Evans visiting him every hour. 

“Who do you think is taking over the class then?” Draco asks Ginny as they take their seats in class along with the rest of the students. 

“Well, I would assume the new advanced Defense against the dark arts professor Moody,” Ginny says

“I’m not sure how I feel about that” Draco regards a thoughtful look on his face

“What do you mean?” Ginny questions him.

‘I don’t know just… something.”

Ginny gives him a look wanting to ask more but he just opens his book to the chapter that they are on, hopefully, Professor Moody will stick with the lesson today and not go off-book. For some reason though Draco doesn’t think that’s the case.

As if he had summoned the devil himself the doors to the room slammed open as Professor Mood entered the room. He was wearing his dirty and ripped coat that Draco had seen him wear at the sorting ceremony. He was walking across the room letting out a series of grunts as he made his way across. He was heavily leaning on his walking cane that made an echoing sound every time it made contact with the ground that made Draco jump the first few times. When he made his way to the front of the classroom he surveyed the students, his eyes staying on Draco longer than he was comfortable with.

“Put all of those useless papers away, they won’t do you any good.” Moody says in a gruff voice, “They won’t do you any good in the real world, those papers won’t matter when going against real threats.” He spits out the last word. Ginny looks at Draco with a perplexed look on her face but he just does what Moody says not wanting to cause issues like potions. But… there was something off with him, Draco couldn’t place it just something seemed off. 

“Sir, we are supposed to be learning about ghouls today.” Some unnamed student calls from the back of the room. But Moody just barks out a laugh setting Draco on edge.

“Ghouls? If you are all 4th years and don’t know how to deal with Ghouls yet that I not only question Lupin's teaching but your abilities as wizards. No, I’m not going to waste my time teaching you about dark creatures. I think Lupin has that well enough covered. I am going to teach you about things that you need to know to survive.” 

“We do know a lot of curses sir, Professor Lupin touches everything in the curriculum-”

“The unforgivable curses to be correct.” 

Draco feeling his heart drop into the bottom of his gut and his complexion go even whiter than it already was. He can feel the eyes of everyone in the classroom turn to him. It is no secret what had happened to him, it had been all over “The Daily Profit” and everything with his father had always been speculated, just never confirmed. 

“What are these curses?” Mood says to the room but no one speaks. “Come on, I know how you young wizards are. Malfoy! Or is it Black now?“ Draco feels utterly shocked and slightly horrified at the remark that Moody had the gall to make in front of his whole class, his teachers just loved giving him all of their attention today, didn’t they?

“It’s Black sir.” He says in a controlled voice.

“Ah…That doesn’t surprise me. Lucius was always the kind to toss aside his toys once they were more trouble than they were with.” Moody says with a flippant gesture. Draco feels his whole face go bright red as whispers spread across the class but are quickly silenced as Moody bangs his cane on the floor. 

“So tell me, Black, what are the unforgivable curses.” Draco didn’t feel like he had much of a choice right now. The whole class was either staring at him or Moody, waiting to see what would happen next. Ginny was staring at Moody with a look of pure rage. 

“The Killing Curse, the Cruciatus Curse, and the Imperius Curse,” Draco says in a hushed voice that could only be heard by those near him as he stared down his desk.

“Good… as an Auror, I have special permission to use these for when I deem fit, most of the time it is when I am hunting down the most despicable wizards and I have to do things that you small minds couldn’t even think of…”

Draco doesn’t know about that, he can think up a lot.

“I think now is as good a time as ever to use these spells, for education purposes of course.”

Draco's head snapped up from its downcast state as terror gripped him. Had Moody said what Draco thought he said? But as he looked up and met Moody’s eyes he knew that he had heard him correctly.

“Black, come up here,” Moody ordered. Draco felt Ginny place her hand on his arm to keep him there but he ignored it and went up to the front of the room, never taking his eyes off of his professor. Something more was going on right now and Draco couldn’t place it. But he wouldn’t stop till he did. 

“I think it is only fair to use you as… demonstration for your classmates. With your experience with them and all.”

“Of course sir,” Draco said, keeping a neutral expression.

“Then let's begin… IMPERIO!”

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Chapter 2: Draco wakes up to a very full house and then everyone head to Diagon Alley to buy school supplies.


End file.
